Help to Buy or 5% Deposit in Melbourne’s West

It's Saturday and you're standing in a display home in Tarneit. Fresh paint, a kitchen island. Next weekend you're at an open in Sunshine. Older brick, bigger backyard, closer to the city.

Same savings, two very different homes. And the scheme that helps most can change with them.

Here's how the two federal doors, Help to Buy and the 5% Deposit Scheme, play out across Melbourne's west.

First, the line that decides which door is open

Help to Buy has an income test. For 2026 to 2027 it's taxable income of $103,000 for a single applicant, or $165,000 combined for a couple or single parent, taken from last financial year's Notice of Assessment.

The 5% Deposit Scheme has no income cap since October 2025. No waitlist either.

Earn more than $165,000 together and only one door is open. Under it, both are, and the type of home starts to matter.

How each scheme works

• The 5% Deposit Scheme. You put in at least 5%. The government guarantees part of the loan so you skip Lenders Mortgage Insurance. You own 100% of the home and borrow the rest.
• Help to Buy. You put in at least 2%. The government buys a share of the home, up to 30% on an existing home or up to 40% on a newly built one. Your loan is smaller, so are your repayments, but you share the home's value with the government.

That share isn't a gift. When you sell, or buy the government out, you pay back its percentage of what the home is worth at that time. If the home grows in value, so does the amount owed.

You can't use both schemes on one purchase. You can stack either one with Victoria's stamp duty exemption and, on a new home, the First Home Owner Grant.

The new estate: Tarneit, Truganina, Wyndham Vale, Melton South

This is where Help to Buy reaches furthest. A newly built home, including house and land with an eligible builder, can get a government share of up to 40%. That's the biggest drop in loan size either scheme offers.

New homes also bring the $10,000 First Home Owner Grant, for homes valued up to $750,000. And Victorian stamp duty is zero up to a dutiable value of $600,000, with a concession up to $750,000.

The trade-offs are real though. A 40% share means 40% of any growth belongs to the government. Estates also sell lots of similar homes into the same market, which matters when you eventually sell.

Want to see how your two incomes line up against the $165,000 line? Book a chat and we'll work through both doors with your real numbers.

The established home: Sunshine, Deer Park, Hoppers Crossing, Werribee

On an established home, the Help to Buy share tops out at 30%. There's no First Home Owner Grant, because that's for new homes only. The stamp duty exemption and concession still apply.

This is where the 5% door can be the simpler one. Your 5% deposit, your loan, your home, all of it. Every dollar of growth is yours, and you can renovate without the government's share being reworked.

The flip side is a bigger loan and bigger repayments than Help to Buy would give you on the same home. Whether that fits your budget depends on what you can borrow, which is worth re-running after any rate move.

The price cap is rarely the first limit

Both schemes cap the price at $950,000 in Melbourne. For many couples in the west, the limits that bite first are the $600,000 stamp duty line, the $750,000 grant line, and your own borrowing number.

So the cap rarely picks the suburb. Your income, the type of home and how much future value you'd share usually do.

Questions worth asking each other

• Where's our combined income? Over $165,000 closes the Help to Buy door.
• New or established? It decides whether the share can reach 40% and whether the grant applies.
• How long do we plan to stay? A shared home means sharing growth until you buy the government out.
• Do we want to renovate? It's simpler when you own all of it.

None of these has one right answer. We've helped over 100 first home buyers into the market, and it always starts with real numbers. If you'd like to see yours side by side, book a chat.

Let's get you into a home.

Figures verified 3 November 2026 against firsthomebuyers.gov.au (Help to Buy Scheme, Help to Buy 2026-27 thresholds, 5% Deposit Scheme), sro.vic.gov.au (first home buyer duty exemption or concession, First Home Owner Grant) and the Victorian price caps published by Broker Daily and Carlisle Homes.