Genuine Savings and What Lenders Actually Count

Your mum's offered to help. Twenty thousand dollars, sitting in her account, ready to go the moment you find a place in Point Cook.

Between that and the $25,000 you and your partner have put away, you're thinking you're set for a 5 per cent deposit.

Then the bank asks a question you weren't expecting. "How much of that is genuine savings?"

Here's what that means, and why it can matter more than the total.

What lenders mean by genuine

A lender isn't only asking whether you have the money. It's asking whether you can hold onto money.

Genuine savings is the lender's term for funds you've built up yourself over time. The usual test is money that's been in your name for at least three months, either sitting there or growing steadily.

If you can put aside a few hundred dollars a fortnight for months on end, you can probably make a mortgage repayment. A lump sum that appeared last Tuesday doesn't tell them that.

Most lenders care about this when you're borrowing more than 80 to 90 per cent of the price. The smaller your deposit, the closer they look at where it came from.

What usually counts

Every lender writes its own policy, so this is the general shape, not a rule.

• Savings you've built over three months or more. The classic. Regular deposits into an account in your name.
• Term deposits and shares held for three months or more. Money parked and left alone counts as money you didn't spend.
• Your First Home Super Saver release. Contributions you made into super under the scheme are savings by any measure. Many lenders treat them that way.
• A gift that's been sitting in your account for three months. Once it's been in your name long enough, most lenders stop asking where it came from.

What often doesn't

• A gift that arrived recently. Your mum's $20,000 is real money, but if it landed last week, most lenders won't count it as genuine yet. It can still be part of your deposit. It just may not satisfy the genuine savings part on its own.
• The First Home Owner Grant. It's paid at settlement or when the build reaches a certain stage, so it's not savings you've held.
• A tax refund or a bonus. Same problem. It's yours, but it wasn't saved.
• Borrowed money. A personal loan for a deposit is a deposit you'll be paying interest on twice. Lenders take a dim view.

If you're looking at your own mix of gift, savings and super and wondering how a lender would read it, book a chat. We've helped over 100 first home buyers into the market, and untangling exactly this is a regular part of the job.

The rent trick a lot of people miss

Here's the part that helps renters most.

Many lenders will accept a clean rental history in place of genuine savings. If you've been paying rent on time for six or twelve months through an agent, that ledger shows the same thing a savings history shows: you can meet a regular payment without fail.

Combine that with a gift and you can have a deposit that's mostly gifted and still get across the line, because the rent proves the habit.

Not every lender does this, and the ones that do have their own rules about how long and whether it needs to be through an agent. It's one of the biggest reasons two lenders can say opposite things to the same couple.

How it fits with the 5 per cent deposit scheme

The First Home Guarantee lets you buy with a 5 per cent deposit and no LMI, up to $950,000 in Melbourne.

The scheme itself sets the deposit size. Your lender still applies its own genuine savings policy on top. So a couple with 5 per cent that's all a fresh gift can be eligible for the scheme and still get knocked back by the lender's savings rules.

The fix is usually time, or the right lender, or both. Move the gift in early, keep the savings pattern going, and pick a lender whose policy suits how your deposit was built.

Where to start

Print your last three months of statements and look at them the way a lender would. Regular deposits in, no mystery withdrawals out, and a balance that grows.

If a gift is coming, ask for it now. Three months in your account changes how it reads.

Then bring the lot to us. We're rated 10/10 on Reviewr by over 100 customers, and matching a deposit story to the lender who'll accept it is most of what that rating is for.

Let's get you into a home.

Figures verified 22 September 2026 against firsthomebuyers.gov.au (5% Deposit Scheme deposit and price caps) and ato.gov.au (First Home Super Saver Scheme).