The federal government program has ushered more than 300,000 Australians into the market, reshaping the entry‑level lending landscape while stoking concerns about rising debt loads.
Housing Australia has confirmed that more than 300,000 Australians have now bought or built a home with support from the Australian government 5 per cent Deposit Scheme.
Launched in early 2020 with a relatively small allocation of places, the scheme has evolved into a mainstream feature of the mortgage market.
According to Housing Australia, almost 60,000 essential workers – including teachers, nurses, and emergency services staff – had secured a home with support from the scheme.
The regional footprint is also significant, with more than 99,000 scheme participants living in regional Australia – a figure the agency pointed to as evidence that the guarantee was bolstering smaller cities and country towns.
The data showed that nearly 6,000 single women with dependants had used the scheme and that around half of all buyers accessing the guarantee were under 30.
Women also make up roughly half of all participants overall.
On the supply side, Housing Australia reported that close to 30,000 newly constructed homes had been delivered with the backing of the guarantee.
In a housing environment marked by tight rental conditions and a backlog in building activity, that pipeline of new stock is being held up as a key policy achievement.
Yet housing advocates have consistently criticised the scheme for fuelling additional demand as opposed to addressing supply.
Permanent residents and ‘modern households’ drawn in
Eligibility changes introduced from mid‑2023 brought permanent residents into the fold, with the rules also adjusted to open the scheme to a broader range of joint borrowers, including family members and friends buying together.
Since those tweaks, more than 48,000 permanent residents have been supported by the scheme, along with over 2,700 family‑and‑friend group applicants purchasing as co‑owners.
Housing Australia said that these patterns reflected how household structures and purchasing strategies were shifting in response to high prices and borrowing constraints.
The most dramatic step change arrived in October 2025, when the government scrapped income caps, increased property price caps, and removed the previous limit on the number of guarantees available.
These settings mean that for borrowers who meet the criteria, the scheme now functions as an ongoing option, opening the way for a larger and steadier flow of loans.
300k figure hailed as ‘significant milestone’
Housing Australia CEO Scott Langford said the figure reflected both the demand from buyers and the way lenders had integrated the guarantee into their product suites.
“This represents a significant milestone for Housing Australia and the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme,” Langford said.
“Working closely with Participating Lenders, the Housing Australia team has successfully scaled the Scheme from 10,000 places in its first year in 2020, to supporting more than 300,000 Australians today.”
In early March, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) became the final major bank to join the scheme’s lender panel.
Emma Jarman, Housing Australia’s executive leader for the program, said the feat reflected a shift from isolated case studies to a broad‑based cohort of new owners across the country.
“Our very first participant in 2020 was a teacher purchasing their first home in regional New South Wales. Since then, thousands more have been able to enter the housing market sooner – including the 300,000th and 301,000st participants, a young couple purchasing their first home in Sydney,” she said.
Jarman added that the agency planned to continue leaning on its lender relationships – including broker networks to maintain momentum.
Scheme turbocharges demand and fuels low‑deposit lending surge
Equifax’s latest mortgage research has confirmed that FHB intent strengthened again in February 2026, defying the usual pattern where a cash rate increase cooled demand in entry‑level categories.
The figures showed that inquiries from would‑be FHBs aged 18–25 grew 9.87 per cent year on year in February, while inquiries from the 26–35 cohort rose 3 per cent over the same period, despite the Reserve Bank lifting the cash rate to 3.85 per cent that month.
Meanwhile, the latest Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) property exposure statistics for the December quarter revealed that banks approved a record wave of loans to buyers putting down deposits of 5 per cent or less.
Banks wrote $5.4 billion in new owner‑occupier loans, with deposits of 5 per cent or less in the three months to December – an increase of $2.1 billion, or 63 per cent, on the previous quarter.
This is the sharpest rise since APRA began publishing the series in 2019.
Real estate network PRD’s report, First Home Buyer Assistance in Australia, further found that the nation’s flagship support schemes had become a double‑edged sword – achieving their immediate goal of boosting FHB activity while entrenching longer‑term affordability risks.
Drawing on Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) housing finance data, PRD reported that between September 2016 and September 2025, the number of FHB loans approved jumped by 34 per cent.
Yet over the same period, the average FHB loan increased from around $320,000 to about $560,000 – a 75 per cent jump.
The Real Estate Institute of Australia’s December 2025 Housing Affordability Report also showed that the expansion of the scheme had simultaneously brought more FHBs into the market, yet pushed up the share of income needed to service a typical mortgage.
The REIA attributed this to FHB participation lifting following the significant expansion of the scheme in late 2025, with average loan sizes and repayment burdens edging higher.
[Related: IMF warns 5% Deposit Scheme risks fuelling prices]
