New changes to the Home Guarantee Scheme. The federal government has recently announced some new changes that will take into effect from 1st July 2023 aiming to help more Australians own a home sooner by expanding the Home Guarantee Scheme (HSG) criteria.
The HSG is administered by the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) on behalf of the Australian Government and includes:
- First Home Guarantee – aiming to help eligible first home buyers purchase their first home sooner. This allows first home buyers to purchase a home with a 5% property deposit. There will be an allocation of 35,000 transactions available each financial year.
- Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee – This is similar to the First Home Guarantee as will help eligible first home buyers to purchase a home in regional areas/locations. From 1st October 2022, 10,000 places are available each financial year to 30 June 2025.
- Family Home Guarantee – This scheme is to support eligible single parents who have at least one dependent child purchase a home. The Family Home Guarantee allows single parents to purchase a home with a 2% property deposit. There will be 5,000 places available each financial year to 30 June 2025.
What will change from 1st July 2023?
Friends, siblings, and other family members will be eligible for joint applications under the
- First Home Guarantee or;
- Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee
These guarantees are no longer restricted to married people, couples in de-facto relationships or single applicants.
This essentially means the guarantee schemes will extend to first home buyers who haven’t owned a property in Australia over the last 10 years. These expanded criteria will support those who have fallen out of homeownership, often due to financial crisis or relationship breakdown.
The Family Home Guarantee eligibility will also extend from single natural or adoptive parents with dependents to eligible borrowers who are single legal guardians of children. Therefore include uncles, aunties and grandparents.
Is this available for local and foreign buyers?
Each of the 3 guarantee schemes will also extend from its previous limitation to only Australian citizens but now expanding to eligible borrowers who are Australian permanent residents from 1 July 2023.
Do you want help buying a home?
At Crest Property Investments we specialise in sourcing brand new and off the plan properties for buyers. If you’d like to learn more about property investment, including the purchase of your first home, please feel free to look us up on our website. You can also contact us via our website.
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While we have taken care to ensure the information above is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances and legislation after the displayed date may impact the accuracy of this article. If you want to learn more, please contact us. We welcome the opportunity to assist you.
July 2023
