Who is eligible for the Family Home Guarantee?

To be eligible for the Family Home Guarantee, you'll need to be a single parent or legal guardian with dependents. ‘Single’ means you aren’t married or in a de facto relationship. You are not regarded as single for the Family Home Guarantee if you are separated but not divorced. You must be earning no more than $125,000 per year, be an Australian citizen and at least 18 years old, intend to be the owner-occupier of the property and not currently own property.

What types of properties are eligible for the Family Home Guarantee?

The NHFIC identifies eligible residential properties to generally 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.

Family home guarantee Home Loans Background

Family home guarantee scheme

Looking to purchase a property and take advantage of the Family Home Guarantee scheme? The table below displays a selection of variable-rate loans (at any LVR) from participating providers on Canstar’s database.

Joshua Sale

Group Manager, Research & Ratings

Nina Rinella

Editor-in-Chief

Instantly compare 5400+ Canstar expert rated loans based on the inputs below

Loan amount

via a Canstar Certified Mortgage Broker

PROMOTED

Low variable interest rate
Low fees
Flexible options

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 229882

Cashback

via a Canstar Certified Mortgage Broker

PROMOTED

Keep it simple with no ongoing fees
$0 ANZ set up or ongoing fees
Competitive interest rates

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 234527 | ^#T&Cs apply

via a Canstar Certified Mortgage Broker

PROMOTED

$0 monthly and annual fees
Unlimited repayments and redraw
Fast approval

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 233714

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Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 238139

Hume Bank | Liteblue | Owner Occupied | LVR ≤60% | Variable

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Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 244248

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Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 237476

Community First Bank | Basic Home Loan | Owner Occupied | LVR ≤95% | Variable

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Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 231204

Hume Bank | Liteblue | Owner Occupied | LVR 60-80% | Variable

via a Canstar Certified Mortgage Broker

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 244248

LCU | Intelligent Mortgage | Owner Occupied | LVR ≤95% | Variable

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Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 240807

Cashback

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Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 238273 | ^#T&Cs apply

Easy Street Fin Services | Street Smart | Owner Occupied | LVR ≤95% | Variable

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Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 231204

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Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 245576

Hume Bank | Liteblue | Owner Occupied | LVR 80-90% | Variable

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Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 244248

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Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 244533

People's Choice | Home Loan Package Standard | Owner Occupied | LVR ≤70% | Variable

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Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 244310

Bank Australia | Clean Energy Eco Plus Home Loan | Owner Occupied | LVR ≤90% | Variable

Link Not Supplied

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 238431

Cashback

Link Not Supplied

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 238273 | ^#T&Cs apply

People's Choice | Home Loan Package Standard | Owner Occupied | LVR 70-80% | Variable

Link Not Supplied

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 244310

Link Not Supplied

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 244533

Link Not Supplied

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 237476

Cashback

Link Not Supplied

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 238273 | ^#T&Cs apply

Hume Bank | Liteblue | Owner Occupied | LVR 90-95% | Variable

Link Not Supplied

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 244248

People's Choice | Home Loan Package Standard | Owner Occupied | LVR 80-95% | Variable

Link Not Supplied

Fees & charges apply, Australian Credit Licence 244310

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The initial results in the table above are sorted by Star Rating (High-Low) , then Comparison rate^ (Low-High) , then Provider Name (Alphabetical) . Additional filters may have been applied, see top of table for details.

About the Family Home Guarantee

What is the Family Home Guarantee?

The Family Home Guarantee is a scheme launched by the Australian government in 2021. It’s designed to help single parents or guardians with dependents to buy a new or existing home with a deposit as low as 2%, and avoid potentially costly lenders mortgage insurance (LMI).

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, single-parent households account for around one in seven families in Australia. The federal government’s Family Home Guarantee exists to give eligible single parents or legal guardians assistance when it comes to purchasing a home. On 1 July 2023, the federal government expanded the Family Home Guarantee eligibilities to include single legal guardians of a dependent, such as aunts, uncles and grandparents.

How does the Family Home Guarantee work?

When purchasing a property, home buyers in Australia would typically need to save up at least a 20% deposit, or pay LMI, an extra cost that can add up to thousands of dollars. This could be charged as an up-front payment, or be added on to the home loan itself and attract interest, costing the borrower much more in the long run. Under the Family Home Guarantee, prospective buyers can have a deposit as low as 2% saved, with the government guaranteeing the remaining deposit amount. This means lenders won’t charge the borrower LMI.

From 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2025, 5,000 Family Home Guarantee places are available each financial year to eligible single parents or legal guardians with dependents. The scheme is part of the Home Guarantee Scheme, which includes the First Home Guarantee (formerly the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme), whereby the government guarantees loans of first home buyers with a 5% deposit.

It’s important to note that the government is not actually paying any of the deposit for the applicant; the scheme simply allows solo parents or guardians to bypass the cost of LMI.

You can use the table at the top of this page to compare a range of mortgages that could be eligible for the scheme, from participating lenders on Canstar’s database. Not all of the participating lenders are enrolled on our database.

Frequently Asked Questions

Eligible single parents or legal guardians can potentially apply for the Family Home Guarantee. However, data from the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC), which oversees the Home Guarantee Scheme, shows that single mums have been key beneficiaries of the Family Home Guarantee. This data is based on loans from two of the major banks, Commonwealth Bank and NAB.

In particular, NHFIC’s 2023 August report showed 80% of buyers who purchased a home through the Family Home Guarantee were single women with dependent children.

It’s worth stressing though that the scheme is available to all eligible parents and (as of 1 July 2023) legal guardians as well. The key is to meet the eligibility requirements for the Family Home Guarantee, which specify you must:

Be a single parent (natural or adoptive) or single legal guardian of at least one dependent. ‘Single’ means you aren’t married or in a de facto relationship. You are not regarded as single for the Family Home Guarantee if you are separated but not divorced.
Be earning no more than $125,000 per year.
At least 18 years old.
Be an Australian citizen or permanent resident.
Intend to be the owner-occupier of the property.
Not currently own property or intending to own a separate property.

There are also rules around the deposit and home loan you can take out:

You must have a home-buying deposit between 2% and 20% of the property value.
The term of your home loan can’t be longer than 30 years.
Repayments must be for the principal and interest of the loan for the full period of the loan agreement.

The scheme is not just available to first home buyers. Solo parents or legal guardians can still be eligible for the Family Home Guarantee even if they have owned a home previously. That said, you will not be eligible if you currently have a freehold interest in real property, a lease of land or a company title interest in land in Australia.

Unlike some other government home-buyer schemes, properties don’t need to be new builds in order to be eligible – they just need to be residential. The NHFIC identifies eligible residential properties to generally include:

an existing house, townhouse or apartment
a house-and-land package
land and a separate contract to build a home
an off-the-plan apartment or townhouse.

The Family Home Guarantee scheme has specific property price limits depending on where you intend to buy. The table below lists the price caps for capital city and regional centres against the rest of the state.

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State	Capitals & regional centres	Rest of state
NSW	$900,000	$750,000
Vic	$800,000	$650,000
Qld	$700,000	$550,000
WA	$600,000	$450,000
SA	$600,000	$450,000
Tas	$600,000	$450,000
Territory	All areas
ACT	$750,000
NT	$600,000
Jervis Bay Territory & Norfolk Island	$550,000
Christmas Island & Cocos (Keeling) Islands	$400,000

Source: National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC), August 2023. The scheme’s website has advised that “capital city price caps will apply to large regional centres with a population over 250,000”, namely Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, Illawarra (including Wollongong), Geelong, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast at the time of writing. This is because “dwellings in regional centres can be significantly more expensive than other regional areas”.

Not every lender has signed up to the Family Home Scheme, so to apply for a place you will need to head to one of the Scheme’s 30-plus participating lenders. Alternatively, speak to one of their authorised representatives, such as a mortgage broker.

As taxable income is an eligibility requirement, you may need to have your most recent Notice of Assessment from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) on hand as part of your application. The NHFIC recommends speaking to your chosen participating lender to understand the risks of signing a Contract of Sale prior to obtaining your latest Notice of Assessment.

You can find out more information about the scheme on the NHFIC website.

In addition to the Family Home Guarantee, 35,000 places have been made available to first home buyers between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023 under the First Home Guarantee. This scheme requires a 5% deposit with zero LMI payable.

The government has also increased the amount that can be withdrawn under the First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSS) from $30,000 to $50,000. The scheme allows first home buyers to make voluntary contributions to their super, which they can then put towards a house deposit.

The Regional First Home Buyer Support Scheme allows first home buyers outside capital cities to buy a home with 5% deposit and avoid paying LMI.

In addition, as part of the 2022 Federal election, the Labor government announced plans for a ‘Help to Buy’ shared equity scheme, which is proposed to be available to 10,000 eligible home buyers with a minimum deposit of 2%. The idea is that the Federal government will chip in up to 40% of the purchase price of a new home and up to 30% of the purchase price for an existing home. This will mean buyers take out a smaller mortgage and will have smaller repayments.

There are also First Home Owners Grants and concessions on offer from each state and territory.

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We recommend that you consider the TMD before making a purchase decision. Contact the product issuer directly for a copy of the TMD.

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“Interest-only loan” generally means a loan where you will only pay interest during the interest-only term. That means you won’t be making payments which reduce debt during the interest-only term.

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Family home guarantee scheme

Home Loans

About the Family Home Guarantee

What is the Family Home Guarantee?

How does the Family Home Guarantee work?

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is eligible for the Family Home Guarantee?

What types of properties are eligible for the Family Home Guarantee?

What are the Family Home Guarantee property price caps?

How do I apply for the Family Home Guarantee?

What are some other housing assistance schemes?

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