If you're looking to purchase a home for you and your dependents, the Family Home Guarantee is here to make buying or building it easier.
Minimum 2% deposit
Get into your home sooner with a smaller deposit.
Pay no Lender's Mortgage Insurance
Save thousands in LMI costs.
Access to our best products
All our customers get access to the same loan benefits.
What is the Family Home Guarantee?
The Family Home Guarantee (FHG) is an Australian Government initiative. It supports eligible single legal guardians with at least one dependent to purchase a home with a deposit of as little as 2% without needing to pay for Lender's Mortgage Insurance (LMI).
From 1 July 2023, 5,000 FHG places are available for the 2023-24 financial year.
Are you eligible?
To apply to the Family Home Guarantee, you'll be subject to certain eligibility criteria as outlined below. You need to provide documentation to prove your eligibility and secure your position.
- You must be applying as an individual.
- You must be a single parent or single legal guardian with at least one dependent child (see more information below).
- You must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident at the time of entering the loan.
- You must be at least 18 years of age.
- You must be earning no more than $125,000 per year.
- You must intend to be owner-occupier of the purchased property.
- You must not currently own property (see more information below).
To apply for the Family Home Guarantee, home buyers must:
- be single. A person is considered single if they don’t have a spouse and/or a de facto partner. Note: a person who is separated but not divorced is not considered single.
- have at least one dependent child. To have a dependent child, you must be the natural or adoptive parent, or legal guardian (appointed by the court, with court issued documentation supporting guardianship, ie. Guardianship order) of the child and the child must either be:
- a “dependent child” within the meaning of subsections (2), (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) of section 5 of the Social Security Act 1991; or
- at least 16 but under 22 years of age, receive a disability support pension within the meaning of the Social Security Act 1991 and live with you.
- Please note: BCU Bank is unable to accept applications from legal guardians before 31 July 2023.
For the purposes of the Social Security Act 1991, you must show that you are legally responsible (whether alone or jointly with another person) for the day-to-day care, welfare and development of the dependent child and the dependent child is in your care.
First Home Guarantee applicants can either be first home buyers or previous owners who do not currently own a home or do not intend to own a separate property when they settle on the home. To be eligible, you must not currently have:
- a freehold interest in real property in Australia
- a lease of land in Australia
- a company title interest in land in Australia
What property types meet the eligibility criteria?
Eligible property types for the Family Home Guarantee include:
- an existing house, townhouse or apartment
- a house and land package
- land and a separate contract to build a home, or
- an off-the-plan apartment or townhouse.
Housing Australia has also developed a handy tool to help first home buyers determine the property price caps for suburbs they’re looking to purchase a property in. All you need to do is enter the postcode for the area you want to buy in to find out more information.
Frequently asked questions
Under the Family Home Guarantee, eligible applicants can get a home loan from participating lenders with a deposit of as little as 2%, without paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI), enabling you to get into your first home sooner.
Usually, home buyers with less than a 20% deposit need to pay lender’s mortgage insurance. Under the Family Home Guarantee, the government agrees to guarantee up to a maximum of 18% of the value of the property purchased, supporting eligible applicants to buy or build a new residential property with a deposit of as little as 2%.
The Guarantee stays in place until the loan is refinanced, you sell your home, move out or until your loan principal balance reduces to below 80% of the value of your property at the time of purchase.
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Important information
Meeting the eligibility criteria does not mean that you will receive either a guarantee or a loan from a participating lender.