Help to Buy 2026: Places Filling Fast

Help to Buy launched on December 5, 2025. By the end of February 2026, 2,356 of the 10,000 annual places had been conditionally or fully approved. That is roughly 23% of the entire 2025-26 annual allocation gone in under two months. At the current pace, the 2026 cohort is on track to fill before the end of June. If you are a first home buyer who has been waiting to see how the scheme settles before applying, that wait is now the biggest risk to your application.

The numbers and why the pace is so fast

Help to Buy is a federal shared-equity scheme. The government takes a stake in the property alongside you, in exchange for letting you in with a much smaller deposit. There are 10,000 places per year nationally, allocated across all states and territories. Australian Housing Australia, the agency that administers the scheme, publishes regular allocation updates and the early pace has surprised many in the industry.

Part of why uptake has been so fast is structural. At launch, only two lenders were accredited to write Help to Buy loans: Commonwealth Bank and Bank Australia. More lenders are expected to join the panel between March and June 2026, but right now every applicant is funnelled through those two banks. A narrow lender panel concentrates demand, which means longer queues and slower processing the closer you get to the cap.

There is also a counterintuitive timing question here. You might assume that waiting for more lenders to join would give you a better choice and a smoother process. In practice, the opposite is likely true: applying now, while the panel is small but the queue is shorter, gives you a better chance of being assessed before places run out. Once additional lenders join, marketing campaigns will follow, and application volume is expected to surge.

Who can apply

The eligibility rules are set federally and apply consistently across states. The headline criteria are:

• Income caps: $100,000 per year for singles and $160,000 combined for couples. These are gross taxable income tested on your most recent ATO notice of assessment.
• Deposit: at least 2% genuine savings. Genuine savings means money you can show has been saved over time, not a gift or one-off deposit.
• Citizenship: you must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident. Couples can include one citizen and one permanent resident.
• Owner-occupier: the property must be your principal place of residence. Investment purchases are not eligible.
• No current property: you cannot currently own residential property in Australia or overseas.

Property price caps vary by state and by whether you are buying in a capital city or a regional area. As an example, the capital city caps are approximately $1.3M in NSW, $950k in VIC, $1M in QLD and ACT, $850k in WA, $900k in SA, and $600k in NT. Regional caps are lower in most states. Help to Buy is now available in all states and territories, with Tasmania live from 9 June 2026. The current cap table is maintained in the Scheme Comparison Tool so you can see the figure that applies to your purchase.

What the government actually owns

Help to Buy is not a grant or a loan. It is a shared-equity arrangement. The government takes a contribution of up to 40% equity for a new build or up to 30% equity for an established home. You own the remainder and live in the property as your principal place of residence.

The trade-off matters. If the property value rises, the government shares in the upside on its percentage. If the property value falls, your share absorbs the full loss on the portion you own. A worked example helps make this concrete.

Consider a $700,000 new build in Queensland. The government takes a 40% equity stake worth $280,000 at purchase. You contribute the remaining $420,000, funded through your 2% deposit (around $14,000) and a mortgage of approximately $406,000. Five years later, if the property is worth $850,000, the government's share is now worth $340,000 (40% of $850,000), and you owe them an additional $60,000 if you exit the scheme by buying them out or selling. If the property instead fell to $650,000, the government's share would be $260,000 and they would absorb $20,000 of the decline on their portion. Your own 60% share would fall by $30,000 in that scenario.

The scheme also lets you buy the government out over time, in 5% increments, as your equity grows. This is how most successful Help to Buy participants intend to use it: a low-deposit entry, with a plan to progressively own more of the home over the next 10 to 20 years.

How to apply, step by step

If you are eligible and ready to move, the process has four stages:

• Step 1 - Check eligibility: use the official eligibility check at housingaustralia.gov.au. The check is free and takes about 10 minutes. It will confirm whether you meet the income, citizenship, deposit and property rules.
• Step 2 - Approach a participating lender: the only two accredited lenders at the time of writing are Commonwealth Bank and Bank Australia. Either can issue a Help to Buy pre-approval. Banks each have their own internal credit policies on top of the scheme rules, so it can be worth speaking to both.
• Step 3 - Get pre-approval: the pre-approval process typically takes 2-4 weeks. The lender will assess your borrowing power, your deposit, and your eligibility for the scheme. You will need payslips, tax returns, ID, and evidence of savings.
• Step 4 - Find the property and finalise: with pre-approval in hand, you can confidently make offers. Final approval is conditional on the property meeting the scheme's property rules (owner-occupier, within the price cap, residential).

The single biggest mistake at this stage of the scheme is waiting. The 2-4 week pre-approval window is not the bottleneck. The bottleneck is whether places are still available by the time your application lands.

What happens if you miss out

If the 2026 places run out before your application lands, you are not out of options. The 5% Deposit Scheme (First Home Guarantee) is the most direct alternative. It lets eligible buyers purchase with a 5% deposit and no lenders mortgage insurance, which can be a saving of tens of thousands of dollars on its own.

The two schemes are structurally different. Help to Buy reduces how much you borrow by making the government a part-owner. The 5% Deposit Scheme leaves you owning 100% of the home but with a smaller deposit and no LMI. Which one suits your situation depends on your income, deposit size, target price, and how comfortable you are sharing long-term equity. The Scheme Comparison Tool walks through both side by side for your specific numbers.

It is also worth remembering that state-based first home owner grants and stamp duty concessions sit on top of either federal scheme. A first home buyer in Queensland, for example, may be able to combine the 5% Deposit Scheme with a state FHOG and a stamp duty concession. Use the Grant Stacker to see the total benefit you may be eligible for in your state.

What this means for you

The practical takeaway is timing. Help to Buy is a meaningful entry path for the right buyer, but the window for the 2026 cohort is closing faster than most people realise. Concrete next steps:

• Run an eligibility check this week at housingaustralia.gov.au if you have not already. It costs nothing and gives you a definitive answer on the rules.
• Start a lender conversation now. Contact a participating lender (see housingaustralia.gov.au for the current accredited list) or a mortgage broker. Even if you are not 100% ready to buy, a pre-approval keeps your application live and ahead of any future surge in demand.
• Model both pathways. Run your numbers through both Help to Buy and the 5% Deposit Scheme so you have a clear backup plan if places run out.
• Speak to a mortgage broker or lender about your borrowing power. A broker can be valuable in mapping which scheme your income, deposit and target property best fits. The scheme rules are only one part of the picture; your lender will also apply their own credit assessment.
• Do not wait for more lenders to join. If they do join in coming months, expect a fresh wave of applications. Earlier is better while places remain.

Run the numbers

These calculators model your situation in concrete terms so you can make a confident call:

• Scheme Comparison Tool - compare Help to Buy and the 5% Deposit Scheme side by side for your income, deposit and target price, so you know which path saves you more.
• First Home Buyer Quiz - a short questionnaire that surfaces the schemes you may be eligible for based on your circumstances.
• Grant Stacker - shows every federal, state and territory grant or concession you may be able to stack on top of your chosen federal scheme.
• Borrowing Power Calculator - estimates the loan size a lender may approve based on your income, expenses and existing commitments, so you can confirm your target price is realistic.