First Home Super Saver Scheme, How It Actually Works

You and your partner have been saving for a deposit for two years. Rent goes up, and the number you're chasing seems to move every time you get close.

Meanwhile your super just sits there. Money goes in every pay, and none of it is any use until you're 60.

Except some of it can be. The First Home Super Saver Scheme lets you save part of your deposit inside super, then take it back out when you buy.

What the scheme actually does

You make extra voluntary contributions into your super fund on top of what your employer pays. Salary sacrifice from your pay, or a lump sum from your bank account. When you're ready to buy, you ask the ATO to release those contributions, plus a deemed earnings amount, to use as your deposit.

The caps are $15,000 of contributions in any one financial year and $50,000 in total per person. A couple can each use their own cap.

Your employer's compulsory contributions don't count. Only the extra you put in yourself.

Why it beats a savings account

The point is tax.

Salary sacrifice contributions are taxed at 15 per cent going into super. For most full time earners that's well below what the same money would be taxed at as wages. When it comes back out, the released amount is taxed at your marginal rate, less a 30 per cent offset.

Put simply, more of each dollar you earn ends up in the deposit. Over two or three years, that can be thousands of dollars you'd otherwise have handed to the tax office.

The ATO also adds a notional earnings amount on top of your contributions, so the money isn't sitting flat while you wait.

The rules that catch people out

This is where it pays to know the sequence.

• Only 85 per cent of salary sacrifice comes back. It was taxed at 15 per cent on the way in, so $15,000 releases as $12,750 plus earnings. After tax contributions from your bank account release at 100 per cent.
• Ask before you settle. You must request an FHSS determination from the ATO before the property is in your name. After that, you've missed it for good.
• Release takes time. The ATO and your super fund both have to process it. It isn't money you can pull out the day before an auction. Build in weeks, not days.
• The clock starts on release. You then have 12 months to sign a contract to buy or build, with one possible extension of up to 12 months. After that, the money goes back into super or you pay extra tax.
• Tell the ATO within 90 days of signing. Skip it and the scheme unwinds.

If you're wondering how these timing rules fit around a pre-approval and an auction campaign, book a chat. We help buyers line up the release so the money lands when the contract does.

Who it tends to suit

The scheme is a planning tool. It rewards the buyer a year or two out, not the one bidding next Saturday.

Picture a couple in Truganina, both on full time wages, renting and saving. If they each salary sacrifice $15,000 for two financial years, that's $60,000 of contributions between them before earnings. Combined with the federal 5 per cent Deposit Scheme, that can cover most of a deposit on a house under the Melbourne price cap.

It suits less well if your income is lumpy, or if you need the money to stay flexible. Once it's in super, it only comes out for a first home or at retirement.

What it stacks with

It's a way of saving, not a lending scheme, so it sits alongside the others rather than competing with them.

You can use FHSS money as your deposit under the federal 5 per cent Deposit Scheme, or under Help to Buy. The Victorian stamp duty exemption to $600,000 still applies. So does the $10,000 First Home Owner Grant on a new home.

You need to be at least 18, never have owned property in Australia, and plan to live in the home. Eligibility is per person, so if your partner has owned before, you can still use your own cap.

Where to start

Work out what you could add to super each pay without squeezing your living costs. Lenders look at those too.

If buying is more than a year away, the scheme has time to work. If it's months away, other pieces matter more.

We've helped over 100 first home buyers into the market, and we're rated 10/10 on Reviewr by over 100 customers. Book a time and we'll map the scheme against your real numbers.

Let's get you into a home.

Figures verified 14 Sep 2026 against ato.gov.au (FHSS pages published 8 July 2026) and housingaustralia.gov.au.