First Home Buyer Loans

Buying your first home is one decision made up of a dozen smaller ones: how much deposit is enough, whether to pay Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) or wait, which government schemes you qualify for, and how much a lender will actually let you borrow. Most first home buyers in Brisbane arrive with the same worry — that everyone else seems to understand the process and they don't. They needn't. With a broker who explains each step in plain English and compares over 50 lenders on your behalf, the path from saving to settlement becomes a sequence of clear, manageable decisions.

Lenders assess three things: your deposit and where it came from (genuine savings versus a gift), your capacity to repay under a serviceability buffer of around 3% above the actual rate, and your credit history. A 20% deposit avoids LMI, but that's not the only route. The Australian Government's First Home Guarantee, administered by Housing Australia, may allow eligible buyers to purchase with as little as 5% deposit and no LMI, and a family guarantee can achieve a similar result using equity in a parent's home. Each has eligibility rules, property price caps and trade-offs worth understanding before you commit.

Queensland adds its own incentives. The First Home Owner Grant has recently been $30,000 for eligible new homes, and first home buyers may also qualify for transfer (stamp) duty concessions, which are more generous again on new builds and vacant land. Amounts, thresholds and end dates change, so we confirm the current settings for your purchase rather than relying on last year's figures. Common traps include applying to several lenders at once (multiple credit enquiries), overlooking upfront costs like conveyancing and building and pest inspections, and choosing a loan on rate alone without weighing offset accounts, redraw and fees through the comparison rate.