Why some brokers recommend different schemes for different clients

Help to Buy is a relatively new federal scheme, and brokers rightly take a careful approach with it. Some recommend it enthusiastically, others steer clients toward a larger deposit instead. Both positions can be correct depending on the client's situation. Here is how I think about the factors at play so you can have a more productive conversation with your own broker.

Why a broker might lean away from Help to Buy

There are legitimate reasons a broker might quietly steer you toward a traditional deposit path instead of Help to Buy, and often those reasons match your best interest:

• You already have a larger deposit saved. If you are close to a 20% deposit, avoiding shared equity altogether means you keep the entire future capital growth of the property.
• You plan a short holding period. Help to Buy has a 90-day exit window when circumstances change and a government buyback mechanic that adds paperwork if you sell or refinance early. That complexity matters more if you are unlikely to hold the property for a decade or more.
• Your income sits close to the caps. The 2026 Help to Buy limits are approximately $103,000for a single applicant and $165,000 for a couple or single parent. If a pay rise is likely to push you over the threshold before you settle, the scheme may not be workable.
• The property is outside the state price cap.Each state and territory has its own Help to Buy cap, and if your target property sits above it, the scheme is simply unavailable.

Why a broker might lean toward Help to Buy

On the other side, there are equally good reasons a broker might recommend Help to Buy for a specific client:

• Low deposit. Help to Buy enables an entry with as little as a 2% deposit, versus 20% on a standard purchase and 5% under the First Home Guarantee.
• Avoiding lenders mortgage insurance. At a 95% LVR on a $700,000 property, lenders mortgage insurance is typically around $24,000. Help to Buy is structured so LMI does not apply.
• Significantly lower monthly repayments. Because the government takes an equity share, the actual loan is smaller. On a $700,000 property with a 2% deposit and a 40% federal equity share on a new home, the loan is roughly $406,000. At approximately 6.95% over 30 years, that is close to $2,690 a month. A standard purchase at 95% LVR would be a loan of about $665,000, or roughly $4,400 a month at the same rate. The gap is real and worth modelling for your circumstances.
• Buying years sooner. For a household saving slowly against fast-moving prices, the ability to enter now rather than in five years can outweigh the future cost of the equity share.

The structural incentive worth understanding

There is one more factor that is useful context, and I raise it respectfully rather than as an accusation. Most brokers are paid a trailing commission that is calculated as a percentage of the loan balance. Under Help to Buy the loan is smaller by design, so the trailing commission is smaller too. This is a feature of how the industry is structured, not a sign of bad faith, and most brokers are happy to disclose the commission structure if asked.

Understanding this dynamic simply helps you evaluate whether a scheme is being dismissed on merit or on commercial fit. Brokers serve an important role, and a good broker will walk you through the trade-offs regardless of what the compensation looks like on their end. It just helps to know the mechanics.

What to ask your broker

The most useful thing you can do before your next appointment is ask for a clear side-by-side comparison. A short, specific request works better than an open-ended question:

• Ask for a comparison of Help to Buy, the 5% Deposit Scheme, and a standard 20% deposit purchase.
• Include total interest paid, LMI costs, government equity cost at exit, and monthly repayments for each.
• Ask which one they would recommend for your circumstances, and why.

Your lender will assess your income, expenses and existing debts against its own serviceability rules regardless of which path you choose, so the numbers your broker walks you through are the starting point for a real conversation, not a fixed offer.

What this means for you

Brokers have deep product knowledge, and their recommendations usually reflect a genuine read of what will serve you best. The goal here is not to second-guess them. It is to arrive at the conversation better informed, so you can confirm the recommendation lines up with your situation and ask sharper follow-up questions.

• Run your own numbers first before you sit down with a broker.
• Ask the broker to walk through the scheme comparison in writing so you can review it later.
• Confirm that the recommendation still holds if your income or plans change over the next few years.

Run the numbers

Use these tools to model each option before your next broker meeting:

• Scheme Comparison Tool - compare Help to Buy, the 5% Deposit Scheme, and a standard purchase side by side.
• Borrowing Power Calculator - get an estimate of what a lender may allow you to borrow before you start looking.
• Grant Stacker - see which federal and state schemes and grants can stack for your situation and how much they add up to.