In another snub for brokers, CBA has announced it won’t accept broker-lodged applications for the new Help to Buy scheme, even though it’s one of only two banks participating.
For many first-home buyers, that’s a real blow. Most rely on brokers to make sense of complex policies, compare lenders, and keep the process calm and stress-free. Shared-equity loans are even trickier, which is why the industry expected brokers to play a central role.
Unsurprisingly, the broker community isn’t thrilled. Industry groups say CBA is shutting out the very professionals who help buyers understand their long-term obligations, and turning a government-backed affordability initiative into a CBA-only channel.
The good news? Bank Australia, the other participating lender, will let brokers support their clients through the scheme. Whether CBA eventually changes its stance is anyone’s guess – but for now, it’s another frustrating reminder of the bank’s patchy relationship with the broker channel.
With that news in mind, it seems appropriate to give you a rundown on the governments Help To Buy Scheme, which opened for business yesterday.
The new Help to Buy Scheme is the Federal Government’s latest tool to help people who feel like they’re always just behind the property market.
In short, it’s a shared-equity scheme:
- You put in as little as a 2% deposit
- The Government chips in up to 40% of the price for a new home or 30% for an existing home
- You borrow the rest from a normal lender
You own and live in the home, and you don’t pay rent on the Government’s share. But because the Government is effectively a co-owner, when you sell (or as your situation improves) you repay their share – including a share of any gain or loss. You can also “staircase” over time by gradually buying back more of their equity.
It’s tightly targeted at low- and middle-income buyers:
- Income caps: generally $100,000 for singles and $160,000 for couples / single parents
- About 10,000 places a year for four years (40,000 households in total)
How it fits with the other schemes
Help to Buy sits alongside (not instead of) the Government’s other offerings:
- The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme (formerly the Home Guarantee Scheme) lets eligible buyers purchase with as little as 5% deposit (or 2% for some single parents) while the Government provides a guarantee to the bank so you can avoid Lenders Mortgage Insurance – but you still take on 100% of the mortgage. From October 2025 it moved to unlimited places for first home buyers.
- Within that umbrella you’ve got streams like the First Home Guarantee, Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, and Family Home Guarantee, which each tweak the rules for different buyer types and locations.
So, very simply:
- 5% Deposit Scheme = helps you get in sooner by lowering the deposit and scrapping LMI, but your loan size stays the same.
- Help to Buy = lowers the deposit and the mortgage size by having the Government buy a chunk with you.
For some buyers, Help to Buy will be the missing piece; for others, a guarantee scheme (and/or state first home buyer grants and stamp duty concessions) may be a better fit.
Variable
The rates below are based on a $500,000 loan, with the borrower making principle and interest payments with a loan term of 30 years. The rates quoted may vary depending on the borrowers LVR.
1 Year Fixed
The rates below are based on a $500,000 loan, with the borrower making principle and interest payments with a loan term of 30 years. The rates quoted may vary depending on the borrowers LVR. At the end of the three year fixed period, the borrowers interest rate will revert to a standard variable rate for the life of the loan.
