First Home Buyer Grants & Schemes Explained

General information only, correct as at July 2026. Interest rates, government scheme rules, grant amounts and thresholds change regularly — always confirm current details with a Finconnex broker or the relevant government agency before making a decision based on any figure below.

There are three separate forms of government support available to eligible first home buyers, and one of the biggest missed opportunities we see is buyers only using one when they could have stacked two or three.

1. The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme

This is a federal scheme, run through Housing Australia, that lets eligible first home buyers purchase with just a 5% deposit (2% for single parents or legal guardians) without paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance. The government guarantees the shortfall between your deposit and the usual 20% threshold. It was renamed from the Home Guarantee Scheme in October 2025, and the changes that came with the rename were significant: no more income caps, no more limited annual places, and higher property price caps by location. It's applied for through a participating lender or broker, not directly through Housing Australia.

2. State First Home Owner Grants (FHOG)

This is a one-off cash grant paid by your state or territory government, separate from the federal scheme above. Amounts, eligibility and price caps vary significantly by state, and they change more often than people expect. As one example, Queensland's FHOG dropped from $30,000 to $15,000 for contracts entered into after 30 June 2026. In most states, the grant is only available for new or newly built homes, not established properties, which catches a lot of buyers out late in their search.

3. Stamp duty concessions and exemptions

Also state-based, and often the largest saving of the three. Most states offer a full exemption for first home buyers below a certain property value, phasing to a partial concession above that up to a higher threshold. Again, the thresholds differ by state and are revised periodically, sometimes mid-year.

Can you use more than one?

In most cases, yes. The federal deposit scheme and your state's grant and/or stamp duty concession are assessed independently, so eligible buyers commonly use two or three together: the federal scheme to avoid LMI, plus a state grant, plus a stamp duty exemption. That combination is often what makes an "impossible" first purchase actually workable.

Worth remembering

Eligibility generally requires never having owned property before, planning to live in the home as an owner-occupier, and being an Australian citizen or permanent resident. Beyond that, the details genuinely differ state to state and change often enough that we track them for a living. If you're planning a purchase, it's worth confirming exactly what applies to your state and price bracket before you get too far into house hunting.