Buying our family home

The Family Home Guarantee is part of the Home Guarantee Scheme, an Australian Government initiative that helps home buyers to buy a home sooner. The Family Home Guarantee supports single parents or single legal guardians of one or more dependent children, to buy a home sooner. They need to have saved a minimum deposit of 2% of the Property Value and meet other eligibility criteria. For the 2025/2026 financial year, 5,000 places are available for the Family Home Guarantee.  

If your home loan is covered by the Guarantee, you may also be able to access other Government Support programs such as the First Home Super Saver Scheme, First Home Owner Grant and Stamp Duty Concessions. It is worth exploring all your entitlements before locking in your new home.

A single parent or single legal guardian must demonstrate that they are the natural or adoptive parent of a dependent child within the meaning of s.5 of the Social Security Act 1991 (Cth).  In a general sense, this means that the person must show that they are legally responsible (whether alone or jointly with another person) for the day-to-day care, welfare and development of the dependent child and the dependent child is in their care. 

Alternatively, the eligible single parent or eligible single legal guardian must show that they are the natural parent, adoptive parent or legal guardian of a person who receives a disability support pension and lives with them.

A parent is not a single parent if they are married or in a de facto relationship. NB: a person who is separated but not divorced is not single.

• Citizenship – be an Australian citizen(s) or permanent resident(s) at the Home Loan Date*
• Income – taxable income at or below $125,000 (individual) shown on your ATO Notice of Assessment
• Deposit – minimum 2% (Family Home Guarantee) of the Property Value
• Property ownership 
  • Family Home Guarantee: must be a buyer who currently doesn’t own property or not have any other property interest once your new home settles
• Owner-occupier – you must buy or build a home to live in (investment properties are not eligible)
• Loan type – owner-occupier loan with Principal and Interest repayments from a Participating Lender, up to 30 years (plus up to 3 years to build a new home)
• Applicant type 
  • Family Home Guarantee: Single parents or single legal guardians of one or more dependent children
• Minimum age – must be at least 18 years old

* The Home Loan Date is the date you sign your home loan agreement with your Participating Lender.

To find out the property price threshold of a suburb you a looking to buy in you can try the Housing Australia tool here.

View the key fact sheet for more information.

Family Home Guarantee information guide is also available.

Previous home owners can apply for the Family Home Guarantee provided they do no currently own a home.

To be eligible, you must not currently have:

• a freehold interest in real property in Australia
• a lease of land in Australia
• a company title interest in land in Australia

There are no costs or repayments associated with the guarantee. However, eligible single parents are responsible for meeting all costs and repayments for the home loan associated with the guarantee.