Yahoo Finance 40,000 Home Guarantee Scheme places open to first-home buyers today
Around 40,000 new places in the Federal Government's Home Guarantee Scheme opened today, which is designed to help Aussies buy their first home.
The scheme allows 35,000 first-home buyers to buy a property with a 5 per cent deposit, with the other 15 per cent of the loan guaranteed by the Government.
Another 5,000 home guarantees for single parents are also now available, which allows single parents with dependent children to buy a home with a 2 per cent deposit with the Government guaranteeing the remaining 18 per cent.
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The Home Guarantee Scheme - formerly known as the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme - reduces the amount of time it takes first-time buyers to save a deposit, which takes the average buyer between two and five years to save for.
According to recent research by Finder, the average deposit size has reached $119,560, which is 30 per cent more than Australia’s average full-time salary of $90,916.
The Home Guarantee Scheme also helps Aussies avoid lenders mortgage insurance, which can climb to tens of thousands of dollars.
Young women taking up the scheme
According to NAB data, solo purchasers have been accessing the scheme in large numbers, with 63 per cent of houses purchased in the past six months by solo buyers bought through the guarantee scheme.
The bulk of these solo buyers (59 per cent) were women.
Most of these customers were also young, with 21 per cent of those eligible for the scheme under 30 compared to 17 per cent for customers not using the scheme.
“People going at it alone shouldn’t be disadvantaged and we are seeing the scheme help them buy a property,” NAB executive, home ownership, Andy Kerr said.
“With a backdrop of house price growth slowing - and in Sydney and Melbourne where it is going backwards - there is some relief in sight for first-home buyers.”
He also said the rise in flexible working had given more first-home buyers the flexibility to move regionally, with regional purchases in the scheme up 2 per cent compared to the same time last year.
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