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• No income caps. The old limits of $125,000 for a single and $200,000 for a couple are gone. Whether you earn $60,000 or $250,000, the scheme is on the table.
• No place limits. There used to be a set number of spots each year and they ran out. That queue is gone. Every eligible buyer can now access it.
• Higher price caps. For Melbourne and Geelong the cap lifted to $950,000, which brings a much wider slice of the market into reach.
With the guarantee you can buy with a 5% deposit and avoid Lenders Mortgage Insurance. On a Melbourne purchase, avoiding LMI can save somewhere in the range of $15,000 to $35,000 depending on the price and the lender. That is real money that either stays in your pocket or shortens your saving time by years.
The scheme fixes your deposit problem. It does not fix your borrowing capacity. You still have to pass the lender’s serviceability assessment, and in 2026 that assessment is tougher than it was, because the Reserve Bank raised rates three times earlier this year and lenders test you at your rate plus a 3 percentage point buffer. So the real question is no longer can I get a spot. It is how much can I actually borrow, and is the home I want within reach. That is where a proper conversation matters.
There is also the newer Help to Buy shared equity scheme, launched in December 2025, where the government takes an equity share in return for a smaller mortgage. It has its own income and price caps, and you cannot combine it with the First Home Guarantee. For some buyers it is the better path, for others it is not. It is worth knowing both exist before you commit to one.
