First Home Buyer

Your first home — with a 5% deposit and no LMI.

We’ll line up the First Home Guarantee, the First Home Owner Grant, and the stamp duty concession — and find you the right lender to make them all click together.

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Is this you?

Who this path is for.

You’ve been saving for years

And you’re closer to a 5–10% deposit than a 20% one.

You’ve never owned property in Australia

Or you have, but it’s been a long time and you might still qualify under specific schemes — let’s check.

You want it explained — once, properly

FHGS, FHOG, stamp duty concessions — in plain English with the footnotes.

End-to-end

What we’ll handle for you.

  • First Home Guarantee (FHGS) — eligibility check and securing one of the limited yearly places with a participating lender. With FHGS you can buy with as little as 5% deposit and avoid LMI entirely.
  • First Home Owner Grant — checking eligibility and helping you claim it (state-aware: Victoria has its own rules, as do NSW, QLD, WA, etc.).
  • Stamp duty concession or exemption — for eligible Victorian first home buyers, this can mean zero stamp duty under the threshold and a concessional rate up to a higher cap.
  • Pre-approval with a lender that’s actually likely to approve you — not just one with a flashy headline rate.
  • Document checklist — payslips, statements, ID — exactly what’s needed, formatted the way the lender wants it.
  • Auction-day support — pre-approval letter ready, finance clauses worded properly if you’re going for a private sale.
Young couple handed keys to their first Melbourne home

The Path Through

Three steps from saving to settled.

Eligibility check (15 minutes)

We confirm whether you qualify for FHGS, FHOG, and the stamp duty concession. Some buyers qualify for all three. Many qualify for at least two.

Pre-approval with a participating lender

FHGS is offered through a panel of lenders — we’ll match you to the best fit and submit pre-approval. Clear borrowing limit before you start house hunting.

Settlement

Offer accepted, we drive the loan to settlement and the keys end up in your hand.

FAQ

Common questions.

Three different things. FHGS (First Home Guarantee Scheme, run by Housing Australia) lets you buy with a 5% deposit without paying LMI. FHOG (First Home Owner Grant) is a one-off cash grant from your state government — in Victoria currently $10,000 for newly built homes (rules can change). Stamp duty concession is a discount or exemption on the state stamp duty for eligible first home buyers. Many buyers qualify for two or all three.

The 5% covers the deposit, but you’ll also need to budget for conveyancing (~$1,500–$2,500), building & pest inspection (~$500–$700), and any government fees not covered by concession. We’ll lay out the full all-in figure before you commit.

Yes — the price cap depends on the location. In Greater Melbourne the cap is currently a different figure to regional Victoria and the rest of the country. We’ll confirm the exact current cap for the suburbs you’re looking at.

This gets nuanced. If you’re applying jointly, both applicants generally need to be first-time buyers. But there are exceptions for previous-owner partners under specific conditions. Worth a 10-minute eligibility chat to find out.

The federal government allocates a fixed number of FHGS places per financial year (1 July – 30 June). Demand is high — the earlier in the year you apply, the better. We’ll know real-time availability across our participating lenders.

Yes — there are professional-package LMI waivers (medical, legal, accounting, etc.) at lower deposit thresholds, and some lenders offer family-guarantor options. We’ll always check FHGS first because it’s free; the alternatives are case-by-case.
Talk to Akshay about your eligibility

Run a Number

What can you afford as a first home buyer?

Estimate borrowing power and stamp duty (state-aware) on your target purchase price.

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Enter your numbers

Estimates only. State-based grants and concessions change — figures should be verified. Talk to Akshay for a personalised assessment.

Real client outcome Placeholder

Five weeks from “we need more time” to keys.

The brief

Couple in their late twenties, combined income $145k, 6.8% deposit saved. Looking in the northern suburbs. Wanted to know if 5% / no LMI was actually possible.

The outcome

FHGS-eligible. Matched to a participating lender, pre-approved at $720k, found a place in Reservoir, FHOG and stamp duty concession both applied. Keys in 28 days from offer accepted.

Their words

“We thought we needed another two years of saving. Akshay had us in the door in five weeks.”

Other paths we help with

Buy a Property Buy an Investment Buying Land

Three ways forward

Let’s check your eligibility.

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