First Home Guarantee 2026: who actually qualifies now

The income caps, property price thresholds, and 'who counts as a first-home buyer' rules have been updated. The eligibility decoder for prospective FHBs in 2026.

The First Home Guarantee Scheme (formerly First Home Loan Deposit Scheme) lets eligible buyers purchase a home with as little as a 5% deposit without paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance, with the federal government guaranteeing the difference. The 2026 settings are out, and a few things have moved.

The headline: more places available, slightly higher income caps, and property price caps have been adjusted upward in capital cities to reflect 2025-26 market growth. But the "who counts as a first-home buyer" definition is also tighter — worth checking before you assume you qualify.

Who qualifies (the actual list)

To use the scheme, all of the following need to be true:

- You're an Australian citizen (permanent residents can use Help to Buy but not the FHG). - You're 18+ at settlement. - Income: under $125,000 single, or $200,000 combined. - You haven't previously owned property in Australia (this includes inherited property — check carefully). - You'll live in the property as your primary residence. - You have a deposit of at least 5% of the property's value, plus enough to cover stamp duty + legal fees.

The scheme is administered by [Housing Australia](https://www.housingaustralia.gov.au/) and offered through 32 participating lenders. AFG's panel covers all of them, so any AFG-accredited broker can place your loan under the scheme.

Property price caps by region (2026)

Capital cities have higher caps than regional areas. The current settings:

- **Sydney + NSW regional centres**: $900k cap - **Melbourne + VIC regional centres**: $800k - **Brisbane**: $700k; QLD regional: $550k - **Perth + WA regional**: $600k / $500k - **Adelaide**: $600k; SA regional: $400k - **Hobart**: $600k; TAS regional: $450k - **ACT**: $750k - **NT**: $600k

If the property price exceeds the cap, you can't use the scheme — but you may still be eligible for state-based first-home schemes that have higher caps.

What you should do now

Run the numbers: take your deposit (assume 5%) plus stamp duty (use our calculator when it ships, or just budget 4-5% of property price), and that gets you to a "minimum-out-of-pocket" figure. Compare to your saved deposit. If you're short, the scheme might still work because the deposit doesn't need to be 20% — but you'll need decent serviceability to support the higher loan amount.

A broker can run a full pre-approval through one of the 32 panel lenders, including modelling the scheme alongside other state-based grants you might combine. Use our [borrowing power calculator](/calculators/borrowing-power) to ballpark your max loan first.

This article references the [Housing Australia First Home Guarantee guidelines](https://www.housingaustralia.gov.au/support-buy-home/first-home-guarantee).