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The 20% deposit is a myth now. See what 5% really buys.
Since October 2025 the government's 5% Deposit Scheme has been uncapped. You can buy with a 5% deposit and skip LMI, and the old income limits and the cap on places are both gone. Most first home buyers still have no idea it changed. Drag your deposit below and watch the suburbs you can actually afford light up in your city. Same money, four times the buying power.
Updated June 2026 Median house and unit prices across the greater metro of each capital, from CoreLogic suburb profiles cross-checked against Domain, REIWA and propertyvalue. Price caps from Housing Australia.
Every dot is one suburb, by its median house price. Tap one, or a suburb below, to see it.
Found a suburb you could actually buy in?
Not every lender is set up for the 5% scheme. We match you with a broker who actually knows it, for free. The lender pays them, not you.
Where this data comes from, and the honest fine print
A few honest notes on the data. Use the toggle to switch between houses and units. Every dot is one suburb median for the type you have selected, so it is always a like for like comparison. Units here follow the CoreLogic definition of attached dwellings, which groups apartments and townhouses together, so in outer suburbs the unit figure often reflects townhouses rather than high rise apartments. Suburbs span the greater metro of each capital, and some sit in neighbouring councils (for Brisbane that includes Ipswich and Logan, which are part of Greater Brisbane); each dot is labelled with its council or district. These are 12 month median sale prices, not a valuation of any one home, so they lag the latest month a little, and a few suburbs with very thin unit markets are shown for houses only. Main source: Your Investment Property suburb profiles built on CoreLogic 12 month medians, June 2026, cross checked against Domain, propertyvalue.com.au and REIWA. The price cap is a ceiling on what you can pay, not a test of the median, so you can still use the scheme in a pricier suburb by buying below the median. Darwin cap is 600,000 dollars now and rises to 750,000 dollars on 1 July 2026. Caps confirmed against firsthomebuyers.gov.au in June 2026. Always confirm the live cap for your exact suburb there, and remember your borrowing power still comes down to the lender income and serviceability check. All prices rounded to the nearest 1,000 dollars.
This is general information, not financial or credit advice. The suburb prices are a guide and rounded off. Confirm the live cap for your exact suburb at firsthomebuyers.gov.au, and remember your borrowing power still comes down to the lender's income and serviceability check.
- www.housingaustralia.gov.au/media/unlimited-places-higher-property-price-caps-first-home-buyers-1-october-2025
- firsthomebuyers.gov.au/australian-government-5-percent-deposit-scheme/property-price-caps
- www.pm.gov.au/media/albanese-government-delivers-5-deposits-all-first-home-buyers-sooner
- discover.data.vic.gov.au/dataset/victorian-property-sales-report-median-house-by-suburb
- reiwa.com.au
- www.domain.com.au/research/house-price-report/march-2026
- www.yourinvestmentpropertymag.com.au/top-suburbs
- www.propertyvalue.com.au
Why a 5% deposit beats a 20% deposit by so much
It is simple maths that almost nobody has updated in their head. Your deposit is a percentage of the price. On a 20% deposit, $40,000 only gets you to a $200,000 property, and nothing sells for that in an Australian capital. On the 5% scheme that same $40,000 is 5% of $800,000, so your buying power jumps to $800,000. The deposit didn't change. The rule did.
On top of that, the government guarantees the gap up to 15% of the value, so you skip Lenders Mortgage Insurance completely. That is usually $15,000 to $35,000 you would otherwise pay or add onto the loan. The catch: your buying power is capped at your area's price limit, and you still have to pass the lender's normal income and serviceability check.
How to read it
Use the houses or units toggle, then read the dots. Every dot is a real suburb across the greater metro, placed by its median price for the type you picked. Green means you could afford it even on a 20% deposit. Gold is the good part: suburbs the 5% scheme just put in reach for your deposit, the ones you could not touch the old way. Grey means still beyond your deposit, or above the scheme's price cap for that city. In the pricier cities, switch to units to see the stock first home buyers actually shop in.
Want the full eligibility picture, not just price? Run the free eligibility checker (every scheme in two minutes), size your repayments with the borrowing power calculator, or read the full First Home Guarantee guide.
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