Govt housing incentive reaches milestone

The federal government's Home Guarantee Scheme (HGS) has now helped 100,000 people buy or build their own home since being launched in 2020. The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, which administers the HGS, said 34% of the 100,000 people who’d been supported had been regional Australians, while 20% had been key workers such as teachers, nurses and social workers. The HGS includes three programs:

• First Home Guarantee.
• Family Home Guarantee.
• Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee.

First Home Guarantee Under the First Home Guarantee, eligible first home buyers can purchase a new or existing home with a 5% deposit without having to pay lenders mortgage insurance (LMI). Income restrictions apply – you can't earn more than $125,000 if you're buying as an individual or $200,000 as a couple. Price caps also apply, which range from $400,000 on Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands to $900,000 in Sydney. Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee The Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee is very similar to the First Home Guarantee with one key difference – applicants must buy in a regional area and must have lived there (or in an adjacent regional area) for the previous 12 months. The same income restrictions apply. There are also price caps, which range from $400,000 on Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands to $900,000 in regional New South Wales. Family Home Guarantee Under the Family Home Guarantee, eligible single parents with at least one dependent child can buy a new or existing home with a 2% deposit without paying LMI. You don’t need to be a first home buyer to participate in this program. But there is an income cap of $125,000 and the same property price caps mentioned earlier. Proposed changes The government recently announced it would expand the eligibility criteria of the HGS from 1 July 2023, although these changes had not been legislated at the time of publication. Under the proposed changes, all three programs would become available to permanent residents. For the First Home Guarantee and Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee:

• Non-first home buyers would be able to apply if they hadn't owned a property in Australia for the past 10 years.
• Friends, siblings, and other family members would be able to make joint applications.

For the Family Home Guarantee:

• Eligibility would be expanded from natural or adoptive parents to legal guardians such as aunts, uncles and grandparents.

Want to know if you’re eligible? I can explain whether you’re eligible for government support and help you apply if you are. Reach out if you’d like to get the ball rolling.