Single parents looking to enter or re-enter the property market will be able to buy with a deposit of just 2 per cent, via the Family Home Guarantee, which has been expanded from 10,000 places over four years to 5000 places each year.
Who is eligible?
Single applicants with a taxable income of up to $125,000 per annum for the previous financial year, and couples with an income of up to $200,000, have previously been eligible for the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, now named the First Home Guarantee.
The expanded scheme will help 50,000 people into the housing market each year.Credit:Peter Rae
No alternative income thresholds were suggested for the regional scheme in the budget, and the same income cap applies for single parents using the Family Home Guarantee.
Permanent residents are only eligible for the Regional Home Guarantee, with other schemes restricted to Australian citizens.
Loading
What can you buy?
Participants must be buying a home to live in, not an investment, and property prices vary according to location and whether or not a new or existing home is being purchased.
No change to price caps was noted in Tuesday’s budget, despite rapidly rising property prices. Median dwelling value across the capital cities jumped 19.2 per cent for the year to February, according to CoreLogic figures, while values in regional Australia lifted 25.5 per cent.
In Sydney, only about one in seven suburbs now has a median dwelling value, covering both houses and units, at or below $800,000 – the existing price cap for the Family Home Guarantee and the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme. Under the current conditions, new homes have a higher price cap of $950,000.
Meanwhile, one in five Melbourne suburbs had a median at or below the city’s existing price cap of $700,000, CoreLogic analysis shows. Such suburbs were even harder to come by in Hobart and the ACT where just 8.5 per cent and 1 per cent of suburbs, respectively, were priced below their existing price caps, both at $500,000.
Only one in five Melbourne suburbs has a median dwelling value below the current price caps for the first-home buyer and family guarantees.
Buyers in more affordable markets like Brisbane, Perth and Darwin have greater choice, with more than a third of suburbs in each city sitting below their respective price caps of $600,000 and $500,000.
Those outside the capital cities and key regional centres currently have lower price caps, ranging from $350,000 in South Australia to $600,000 in NSW. At that price cap, buyers would be unable to afford the median house prices in regions like Orange, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour.