The Family Home Guarantee is a federal scheme that lets eligible single parents and single legal guardians buy a home with a deposit as small as 2%, without paying lenders mortgage insurance. The government guarantees part of the loan, so a participating lender can approve what would otherwise be a 95%+ LVR file.
You do not need to be a first home buyer. Single parents who owned property during a previous relationship can qualify, as long as they do not own property at the time of applying and meet the income and dependant criteria.
Price caps apply by state and region, and the number of places, income limits and settings are reviewed with federal budgets — so the rules you read in an old article may not be the rules today. Checking the current settings and which lenders are participating is the first step, not the last.
Serviceability is still assessed normally: the guarantee removes the deposit hurdle, not the repayment test. Lenders differ on how they treat Family Tax Benefit, child support and part-time income, so lender selection often matters more than the scheme itself.
If you are weighing the guarantee against waiting to save a bigger deposit or using a family guarantor, we can run the numbers on each path. See our single parent home loans page for how we approach these files, or talk to us before you start inspecting properties. This article is general information only, not credit advice.
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