How Much Deposit Do You Need to Buy in Melbourne?

You've got a savings account with a name like "house" on it. You put money in it every payday. And every few months you check the balance against a number in your head, and the number in your head wins.

Rent went up again in March. The place you inspected in Tarneit sold for forty grand over the range.

So you keep saving toward a figure that might not apply to you anymore.

The 20% number is probably from 2015

Twenty per cent was the standard because anything less meant Lenders Mortgage Insurance, and LMI on a modest Melbourne house could run past $20,000. It was a real wall.

On a $650,000 home, 20% is $130,000. On a dual income with rent to pay, that's most of a decade.

But 20% was never a law. It was a lender's risk buffer. And since October 2025, there's a way around it that costs you nothing.

What the First Home Guarantee actually does

The federal government guarantees up to 15% of the property value on your behalf. You put in 5%. The lender treats you like a 20% borrower and charges you no LMI.

From October 2025 the income caps came off. So did the place limits. If you're an eligible first home buyer, it's available, not rationed.

In Melbourne and Geelong the property price cap is $950,000. Regional Victoria is $650,000.

That takes your $650,000 house from $130,000 down to $32,500. If you've got $30,000 saved and you're a couple on two incomes, you are closer than you've been telling yourself.

Stamp duty is the second wall, and Victoria removed it

In Victoria, a first home buyer pays no stamp duty at all on a property up to $600,000.

Between $600,000 and $750,000 you get a sliding concession, so the duty phases in gradually rather than hitting all at once.

That's not a small line item. On a $650,000 purchase it's the difference between roughly $12,000 and roughly $34,000.

Worth knowing before you fall in love with something at $760,000.

Your super is a deposit account you forgot you had

The First Home Super Saver Scheme lets you make voluntary contributions into super, then pull them back out for a first home deposit.

The cap is $50,000 per person across your lifetime, with up to $15,000 counted from any single financial year.

For a couple, that's up to $100,000 in contributions, plus the earnings on top. It's saved at your super tax rate rather than your income tax rate, which is the whole point.

It takes planning, so it suits you better if you're twelve to eighteen months out rather than buying next month.

The First Home Owner Grant, and Help to Buy

Victoria's First Home Owner Grant is $10,000, but only on a new home valued at $750,000 or less. If you're looking at established houses in the west, it isn't yours. If you're looking at house and land in Melton or Wyndham Vale, it might be.

Help to Buy launched in December 2025. The government takes an equity share of up to 30% on an existing home or 40% on a new one, and you go in with a 2% deposit. There are 10,000 places a year and it runs for four years.

It's a genuine option. It also means you own less of your own house, so it's a decision, not a freebie.

They stack, and the order changes the answer

Here's the part nobody explains properly. Most of these work together.

You can use the First Home Guarantee and the stamp duty exemption and your super savings on the same purchase. What you can't do is work out the combination in your head, because each one has its own caps, its own definition of a first home buyer, and its own timing.

That's why the free scheme checker exists on this site. Answer a few questions about what you earn, what you've saved and where you're looking, and it tells you which of the five apply to you and roughly what each one is worth.

Over 100 first home buyers have gone through this with me and are now in their own homes.

Start with the calculators. Let's get you into a home.