What the Latest Changes to the 5% Deposit Scheme Mean for You

If you've been thinking about buying your first home, there's some important news you need to know about. From 1 July, the government has rolled out a set of changes to the 5% Deposit Scheme — and depending on where you're buying and how you're planning to finance it, these updates could work in your favour.

I've broken down exactly what's changed below, so you know where you stand before we sit down and talk numbers.

A Quick Refresher: What Is the 5% Deposit Scheme?

For those who haven't come across it yet, the 5% Deposit Scheme lets eligible buyers get into the property market with just a 5% deposit. Instead of paying for lenders mortgage insurance (LMI), the government guarantees up to 15% of your loan — or up to 18% if you're a single parent.

It's been a genuine game-changer. By the end of March 2026, the scheme had already helped more than 300,000 Australians buy their first home.

Property Price Caps Have Moved

The biggest headline out of this update is a shake-up of the property price caps in a few key markets.

Northern Territory: For the first time, Darwin now has its own separate price cap, distinct from the rest of the Territory. It's jumped from $600,000 to $750,000, while regional NT stays at $600,000. This brings the NT into line with other states that already split their caps between capital cities and regional areas — a change that makes sense given how much Darwin property prices have grown recently.

New South Wales: Four more regional centres have been added to the higher $1.5 million price cap: the Central Coast, Coffs Harbour–Grafton, Mid North Coast, and Richmond–Tweed. They join Illawarra, Newcastle, and Lake Macquarie, which already qualified.

Other states: Nothing has changed for these regions, but it's worth reminding yourself of the numbers — Geelong sits at $950,000, and the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast are both capped at $1 million.

If you're house-hunting in any of these areas, this could genuinely open up more properties for you to consider.

Refinancing Just Got a Bit More Flexible

If you're already using the scheme and thinking about switching lenders, there's good news here too.

• Refinancing inquiry responses are now valid for 42 days, up from 30 — giving you more breathing room to sort out the paperwork.

• If you're refinancing from one participating lender to another, you can now capitalise your refinancing fees and costs into the new loan, rather than having to find that money upfront.

A word of caution: not every lender has finished updating their systems for these changes yet, so if refinancing is on your radar, get in touch and I can check where your lender is at.

New Retained Savings Rules

This is the change worth paying closest attention to, especially if you've been diligently saving.

For any scheme place reserved on or after 1 July, there's now a cap on how much you can hold in savings after your loan settles. Specifically, you can't retain more than six months of living expenses plus six months of home loan repayments after drawdown. If you're building, add an extra 5% buffer on top of that.

Why the change? The scheme is designed to help people who genuinely need a leg up to buy their first home — not those who already have significant savings behind them. This tightens the eligibility to keep that focus front and centre.

Worth noting: some lenders, like ANZ, are still working through how this affects their internal processes. In the meantime, ANZ has confirmed it'll keep applying its existing $30,000 maximum retained savings policy until further notice.

What Should You Do Next?

These changes could genuinely shift your options — whether that's a wider choice of suburbs, an easier refinance, or a rethink of your savings strategy before you apply.

If you're not sure how any of this applies to your situation, that's exactly what I'm here for. Get in touch and let's map out your best path into the property market under the updated scheme.

This information has been prepared by PHA Financial Services and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on this information you should consider whether it is appropriate to your situation. We recommend you obtain financial, legal and taxation advice before making any financial investment decision. The information provided was accurate at the time of publication and changes in circumstances after a document is published may impact on the accuracy of information. Some information may have been collated from various third parties and we make no assertion that the information was originally ours.