First Home Loan Deposit Scheme

First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (New Homes)

In the 2020-21 Federal Budget, the Australian Government announced an additional 10,000 First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (FHLDS) places for the 2020-21 financial year, specifically for eligible first home buyers building or purchasing new homes. These additional places are known as FHLDS (New Homes).

We're currently accepting applications for FHLDS (New Homes) for eligible first home buyers looking to build or purchase a new home during this financial year (ending 30 June 2021).

You can find more information about FHLDS (New Homes) and eligibility requirements on the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) website.

We're not currently accepting new requests to join our First Home Loan Deposit Scheme waitlist for customers looking to buy homes that do not meet FHLDS (New Homes) requirements. If you're already on our waitlist, our Home Lending Specialists can guide you through the application process and provide you with available options – see below for contact details. 

For the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, you can check your potential eligibility on the NHFIC website. The following conditions will generally apply:

• Australian citizens who are at least 18 years of age. Permanent residents are not eligible
• Applicants must not have previously owned or had an interest in a residential property, either separately or jointly with someone else (this includes residential strata and company title properties, regardless of whether it was an investment or owner-occupied property and whether it was ever lived in)
• Only singles with a taxable income of up to $125,000 per annum and couples with a combined taxable income of up to $200,000 per annum may be eligible
• Couples are only eligible for the Scheme if they are married or in a de facto relationship. Other persons buying together, including siblings, parent/child or friends, are not eligible
• The Scheme will only apply to Owner Occupied home loans paid on a principal and interest basis (property investment and Interest Only loans are excluded). If the loan relates both to the purchase of vacant land to the construction of a house on the land, the loan may still be an eligible loan even if the terms of the loan agreement permit Interest Only payments for a specified period
• Applicants must have a deposit of between 5% and 20% of the property’s value
• Your maximum property purchase price is subject to the suburb and postcode of your new property. You can check the property price threshold for your property’s suburb and postcode using NHFIC’s property price threshold tool

You can only receive the Government Guarantee once. If you have entered the Scheme but were unable to purchase a property in time, you can request another place.

For the FHLDS (New Homes) eligibility requirements, you can check your potential eligibility on the NHFIC website. In addition to the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme eligibility requirements listed above, the following conditions will generally apply:

• Applicants must build or purchase a new home including:
  • newly constructed dwellings
    
  • off-the-plan dwellings
    
  • house and land packages
  • land and a separate contract to build a new home.
• A newly constructed dwelling refers to properties that completed construction on or after 1 January 2020 and have not previously been rented, leased or lived in. You can learn more about these requirements on the NHFIC website.
• An ‘off the plan’ purchase is one where you enter into a contract of sale dated on or after 7 October 2020 for the purchase of a property where:
  • the title to the property has not yet been issued, or
  • if title to the property has been issued, it cannot yet be legally occupied, for example the building of the property has not yet finished.
    
• A house and land package is where you build a new home by entering into a contract of sale to purchase land from the same person (or persons within the same corporate group) as the person who you enter into a contract with to build your new home, and:
  • the building contract is dated on or after 7 October 2020; and
  • construction is scheduled to commence within six months of entering into the contract and complete within 24 months of starting.
• A land and separate contract to build home is where you build a new home by entering into a contract of sale to acquire land from a person who is different to the person you enter into a contract with to build your new home, and;
  • the building contract is dated on or after 7 October 2020; and
  • construction is scheduled to commence within six months of entering into the contract and complete within 24 months of starting.
• Separate property price thresholds apply for the FHLDS (New Homes). You can check the property price threshold for your property’s suburb and postcode using NHFIC’s property price threshold tool.

You can only receive the Government Guarantee once. If you have entered the Scheme but were unable to purchase a property in time, you can request another place.