The Australian Government, via the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, has recently implemented a new scheme to assist eligible first home buyers to enter the property market with as little as a 5% deposit. The First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (FHLDS) was introduced on the 1st January 2020 with the first 10,000 scheme places allocated across the CBA, NAB and 25 other non-major lenders. A further 10,000 scheme places will be made available from July 2020.
Under the scheme the Government will guarantee the portion of the first home buyer’s loan between the deposit amount (at least 5%) and 20% of the property value thereby exempting the first home buyer from paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance and allowing them to enter the market sooner.
Obviously there are eligibility conditions that must be met to access one of these scheme places and there are also property price thresholds in place (e.g. $600k cap in Metro Melbourne). Further details about the scheme and eligibility conditions can be found on the dedicated Government website https://www.nhfic.gov.au/what-we-do/fhlds/
We note that one of the documents required to be provided to your lender is your 2018-19 Notice of Assessment from the ATO. So if you (or perhaps your adult children) are interested in exploring this scheme and you haven’t yet prepared your 2018-19 tax return please get in touch with our team who can help you get this organised.