Buying your first home in Western Australia

The short answer

Save what you can, find out what a lender would advance you, and work out which forms of help you qualify for before you start looking. Then get a pre-approval and go shopping with a real number.

Almost nothing about the process is different for a first home buyer once the finance is agreed. What is different is the deposit, the assistance, and how closely a lender reads a file with no borrowing history behind it.

The deposit, and what it actually has to cover

The deposit is the part of the purchase you fund yourself, and it is only one part of the cash you need on the day. Transfer duty, settlement costs and inspections all come out of the same savings.

Lenders also care where the deposit came from. Genuine savings built up over time are read differently from a lump sum that appeared last month, and a gift from family needs a letter confirming it is a gift rather than a loan.

The cash you need, beyond the deposit itself

• Transfer duty, unless the first home owner rate reduces it to nil at your price
• Settlement agent or conveyancer fees, and the registration fees paid on your behalf
• Building and pest inspections, and a strata report where the property is strata titled
• Lenders mortgage insurance, where your deposit is below the lender's threshold
• Connections, moving costs and whatever the place needs in the first month

What help exists, and who decides each one

There are three separate forms of assistance a first home buyer in Western Australia might use. They are commonly confused with each other, and being eligible for one does not make you eligible for another.

The grant

The grant is a one-off payment for eligible first home buyers building or buying a new home. It does not apply to an ordinary established house, which is the single most common misunderstanding we see.

Amounts, property value caps and eligibility conditions are all set by government and change from time to time. They are set out with their source and the date they were checked at /guides/first-home-owners-grant-wa/, and they are deliberately not repeated here.

The duty concession

This one is separate from the grant and it is often worth more. Where you qualify for the first home owner rate, transfer duty is nil below a threshold and charged at a concessional rate up to a ceiling, above which the general rate applies.

The Commonwealth deposit scheme

The Australian Government supports eligible buyers to purchase with a smaller deposit, and without paying lenders mortgage insurance, by guaranteeing part of the loan. You do not apply to the government for it. You apply through a participating lender, which assesses you against both the scheme rules and its own.

If the deposit is the problem

Most first home buyers are held up by the deposit rather than by the repayments. There are three usual routes around that, and they suit different people.

• Pay lenders mortgage insurance, which lets you borrow a higher proportion of the value at a cost that is usually added to the loan
• Use a family guarantee, where a relative offers equity in their own property as additional security
• Use the Commonwealth deposit scheme through a participating lender, if your circumstances and the property fit its rules

Each has a real cost or a real consequence for somebody. A guarantee puts a family member's property on the line, and mortgage insurance is a premium you are paying to protect the lender rather than yourself.

Which one suits you is a conversation, not a rule. It depends on your income, your timeline and whether the family option is genuinely available rather than merely possible.

What a lender looks for in a first home buyer

With no mortgage history to look at, a lender leans harder on everything else. Your account conduct over the past several months is a large part of the picture.

• A savings pattern that shows you can put money aside consistently
• Clean statements, with no dishonours, no payday lending and no gambling activity
• Stable employment, with probation periods treated cautiously by many lenders
• Credit cards and buy-now-pay-later accounts under control, ideally closed if unused
• A clear explanation for any large or irregular deposit into your accounts

None of that is about judging how you live. It is about what a credit assessor can defend when they sign off on a file, and a tidy few months makes their job easy.

The order to do it in

1. 1

   Find out what you could borrow

   Before anything else, and before you look at a single listing. It sets the ceiling that everything else works within.

2. 2

   Work out the cash you need on the day

   Deposit, duty, settlement costs and inspections. Check the duty figure for your price and whether the first home owner rate reduces it.

3. 3

   Establish which help applies to you

   The grant, the duty concession and the deposit scheme have separate rules. Some, all or none may fit your circumstances.

4. 4

   Tidy the file for a few months

   Close unused cards, clear small debts, and keep the statements explainable. This is the step people skip and regret.

5. 5

   Get a pre-approval from the right lender

   The right one, chosen before you apply, rather than the one you already bank with by default.

6. 6

   Then go looking

   With a real budget, a written indication behind you, and a finance clause in any offer you make.

Where to go next on this site

The grant has its own page because it carries figures that have to be dated. The calculators are the fastest way to turn this into your own numbers.

Once the finance side is settled, the purchase itself is the same for everybody. The buying guide covers that end to end.