The 5% Deposit Scheme on the Gold Coast: the $1,000,000 cap, who qualifies and which lenders offer it

A 20% deposit on a $700,000 Gold Coast unit is $140,000. Add duty, fees and a buffer, and most first buyers I meet have already decided it is years away. The 5% Deposit Scheme changes that maths more than any other lever, and most people only half understand it.

Since 1 October 2025 the scheme has had no income cap, no limit on places and a $1,000,000 property price cap on the Gold Coast. Here is how it works, who it is for, what it costs on the day, and the one condition that matters if you plan to turn your first home into an investment later.

The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme (formerly the Home Guarantee Scheme) lets an eligible first home buyer borrow with a deposit as low as 5% and pay no lenders mortgage insurance. The government backs part of your loan to the lender, which is why the lender does not ask for LMI on a loan that would normally need it.

Everything else about the loan is normal. You borrow up to 95% of the price from a participating lender, you repay principal and interest over up to 30 years, and the lender assesses your income and expenses the way it would for anyone else. The scheme removes LMI and the 20% deposit hurdle. It does not lower your repayments or shrink the loan.

The scheme sets a property price cap by location. For Queensland it is $1,000,000 in the capital city and regional centres, and the Gold Coast is named as one of those centres. Outside them the cap drops to $700,000. Both the purchase price and the lender's valuation have to sit at or below the cap, for a house, townhouse or unit, existing or new build. If you are building, land plus build has to come in under it too.

On the Gold Coast I think about three price lines together, because between them they decide how much cash you need on the day.

• ●$700,000. At or under this, an eligible first buyer pays no Queensland transfer duty on an established home (contracts from 9 June 2024). Above it the concession steps down in $10,000 bands: duty is $10,925 at $750,000 and $20,070 at $799,000.
• ●$800,000. The first home concession ends here. At $800,000 and above you pay the standard home concession rate, which is $21,850 at exactly $800,000. From 1 August 2026 both first home concessions also require you to be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or specified foreign retiree.
• ●$1,000,000. The scheme cap. A $1,050,000 house is outside it, which usually means a 20% deposit or LMI instead.

New homes sit on a different grid. Queensland charges no transfer duty on a new home at any price for eligible first buyers, for contracts dated 1 May 2025 or later, and the $30,000 grant applies to new homes valued under $750,000 including the land. If you are weighing an off the plan apartment against an established one, my off the plan finance page walks through the lender side.

The eligibility rules are shorter than most people expect. At the time of writing you need to:

• ●be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and 18 or over
• ●not have owned property or land in Australia in the last 10 years... so ownership a long time ago does not rule you out
• ●buy a home you will live in. Investment properties are not eligible
• ●take an owner-occupier loan with principal and interest repayments over up to 30 years, with up to three extra years if you are building
• ●have at least 5% of the price as a deposit that the lender accepts

You can apply alone or with one other person, and that person can be a partner, a friend or a family member. Both of you have to meet the rules, and the lender assesses the loan on both incomes. A separate 2% deposit pathway exists for eligible single parents, which is its own conversation.

You cannot apply to the government. You apply through a participating lender, who checks your eligibility, submits the application and tells you the outcome. At the time of writing there are 54 lenders on the government's list.

The four majors are all there: ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac, along with St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA. So is a long tail of customer-owned and regional lenders, including Bendigo Bank, Great Southern Bank, MyState Bank, Newcastle Permanent, People First Bank, Queensland Country Bank, QBank, Bank Australia, IMB Bank, Beyond Bank and Liberty. Some well-known lenders are not on the list at all. Macquarie is one.

Being on the list is only the start. Each lender layers its own policy on top of the scheme rules, and on the Gold Coast that is where applications live or die: minimum apartment sizes, exposure limits in high-density postcodes like 4217, how HELP debt is treated, and whether a holiday-let building is acceptable. The scheme says you are eligible. The lender decides whether it will lend on that property, to you. Matching the two is most of what I do for a first buyer.

The lender choice also sets up loan two. A lender that is right for a 95% first home loan may not be the one you want holding the security when you go to buy an investment property in three years. I cover that on my first investment property page.

Once a lender pre-approves you under the scheme, you have 90 days to find a home and sign a contract of sale. That is tighter than it sounds in a market where the right unit can take a couple of months to appear. The practical answer is to have your deposit, documents and lender choice settled before pre-approval, then start inspecting on day one rather than day thirty.

Take a $700,000 established unit in Southport, bought by an eligible first buyer under the scheme.

• ●5% deposit: $35,000
• ●Queensland transfer duty: $0 (first home concession, $700,000 or under)
• ●Transfer and mortgage registration fees: $2,917.20
• ●Lenders mortgage insurance: $0 under the scheme
• ●Loan: $665,000 at 95%
• ●Cash needed before conveyancing, inspections and a buffer: about $37,917.20

Move the same buyer to an $850,000 house and the picture changes. The deposit becomes $42,500, duty is $24,100 because the first home concession has ended, fees are $3,615.60, and the cash on the day is about $70,215.60. Nearly double, for a property that costs 21% more. Run your own price through the Queensland stamp duty calculator before you fall for a listing.

This is the part that matters most for the way I work. The scheme requires you to live in the home, and to keep living in it. If you move out and rent the place, the government backing can fall away and the lender may require LMI or other costs at that point. So the common plan of buying under the scheme and renting it out a year later does not work the way people assume.

The better version is to buy the first home under the scheme, live in it, and structure the loan so the equity can support a separate investment purchase later. An offset account rather than redraw, a loan that is not borrowed to the ceiling, and a lender that suits the second loan as well as the first. That is the whole idea behind first home, set up for the second.

If you would rather invest first and keep renting, the scheme and the Queensland concessions will not apply. Rentvesting is a real strategy, but it is a different deposit conversation.

Sources

• ●Australian Government... 5% Deposit Scheme ... deposit, no LMI, no income caps, unlimited places, eligibility, the owner-occupier and principal and interest requirements, the 90 days after pre-approval and the ongoing owner-occupancy condition. Checked 13 October 2026.
• ●Australian Government... Property price caps ... $1,000,000 for Queensland capital city and regional centres, with the Gold Coast named, and $700,000 elsewhere in Queensland. Checked 13 October 2026.
• ●Australian Government... Participating lenders ... the 54 lenders on the list at the time of writing. Checked 13 October 2026.
• ●Queensland Revenue Office... First home concession and first home (new home) concession ... nil duty at $700,000 or under for contracts from 9 June 2024, the concession to under $800,000, nil duty on new homes for contracts dated 1 May 2025 or later, and the citizen, permanent resident or specified foreign retiree rule for transactions on or after 1 August 2026. Pages updated 31 July 2026. The stepped concession amounts are on the concession rates page.
• ●Queensland Government... No stamp duty for first home buyers on new builds and Extending the $30,000 first home owner grant ... the 1 May 2025 start and the grant's continuation past 30 June 2026, confirmed by the Revenue Office's 2026-27 State Budget measures page.
• ●Queensland Revenue Office... First Home Owner Grant eligibility ... $30,000 for contracts signed on or after 20 November 2023 with no end date published, new home valued under $750,000 including land, at least one applicant a citizen or permanent resident, move in within a year and live there six continuous months. Page updated 5 August 2026.
• ●Australian Government... 5% Deposit Scheme fact sheet, 1 October 2025 ... the expanded scheme as it stands from that date.
• ●Titles Queensland... Fee schedule FY2026-27 ... transfer and mortgage lodgement fees used in the worked examples.
• ●Worked-example duty and fees are calculated from the FY26-27 Queensland schedules in my stamp duty calculator. Lender policy on apartments, postcodes and HELP debt is general market practice and varies by lender.