Australian First-Home Deposit Guide: First Home Guarantee, Super Saver & Stamp Duty

This covers deposit size and the real, current government support available to first-home buyers in Australia -- not personalised financial advice, and not a substitute for talking to a mortgage broker about your own numbers. If you're earlier in the journey, see Navaroa's first-home buying guide for the full roadmap this fits into.

The First Home Guarantee: buy with a 5% deposit, no LMI

The First Home Guarantee, run by Housing Australia, lets an eligible first-home buyer purchase with as little as a 5% deposit without paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) -- the government guarantees the gap up to 20% directly to a participating lender, rather than you paying an insurer for the privilege of a smaller deposit. As of October 2025 the scheme has no cap on the number of places available and no income cap, a genuinely significant widening from its earlier, more restrictive form -- if you looked into this scheme a year or two ago and were put off by a waitlist or an income test, it's worth another look now. You still need to buy within your region's property price cap and move in within an eligible timeframe (typically six months of settlement). Current 2026 headline caps include Sydney and NSW regional centres at $1,500,000, Brisbane and Queensland regional centres (including the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast) at $1,000,000, Melbourne and Geelong at $950,000, and Perth at $850,000 -- caps for every other city and region are set by Housing Australia and reviewed periodically, so check the current figure for your specific destination at firsthomebuyers.gov.au before relying on a figure you've seen elsewhere, including this one.

The First Home Super Saver Scheme: using your own super

The First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSSS) lets you withdraw voluntary super contributions you've made since 1 July 2017 -- up to $15,000 per financial year and $50,000 in total (a couple can combine for $100,000) -- to help fund a deposit. You can access up to 85% of eligible before-tax (concessional) contributions, 100% of after-tax (non-concessional) contributions, and all the associated deemed earnings. This is a one-time-only scheme: you apply for an FHSS determination from the ATO via myGov when you're ready to buy, and you must never have owned Australian residential property before (with limited hardship exceptions) and intend to live in the home for at least six months within your first year of owning it.

Stamp duty: the cost that varies most by state

Stamp duty (transfer duty) is charged by each state and territory on the property's purchase price, and every state offers some first-home buyer concession or exemption below a price threshold -- but the exact thresholds, the taper above them, and whether new builds get different treatment all genuinely differ by state, and they change periodically. Rather than quote specific dollar thresholds here that may already be stale by the time you read this, check your destination state or territory's own revenue office directly before budgeting against a figure from a third-party article -- it's the single biggest buying cost that a generic national guide genuinely cannot give you an accurate number for.

Putting it together

A realistic first-home deposit plan usually combines: your own savings, a First Home Guarantee application if you qualify (which changes how much deposit you need, not how much the home costs), and a First Home Super Saver withdrawal if you've been making voluntary super contributions. None of these are mutually exclusive, and a mortgage broker can tell you exactly how they combine against your own income, the specific property, and your state's stamp duty rules. Once you've got a realistic number, Navaroa's first-home buying guide picks the journey back up from there -- choosing where to buy, making an offer, and the moving-in stage.