{"id":671345,"date":"2026-05-14T23:04:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/671345\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T23:04:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:04:31","slug":"first-home-buyer-stimulus-runs-dry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/671345\/","title":{"rendered":"First home buyer stimulus runs dry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Albanese government\u2019s expanded 5% deposit scheme for first home buyers took effect on 1 October 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Over the first quarter of the scheme, mortgage demand from first home buyers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrobusiness.com.au\/2026\/02\/5-deposit-scheme-drives-surge-in-first-home-buyers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spiked<\/a>. A total of $19.310 billion was lent to first home buyers in the December quarter of 2025, an increase of 16% on the prior quarter and the highest value since the March quarter of 2021.<\/p>\n<p>However, Wednesday\u2019s housing finance data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that the momentum stalled in the March quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The number of mortgages issued to owner-occupier first home buyers declined by 4.3% to 30,241. However, the number of mortgages issued over the quarter was still 1.9% higher than the September quarter of 2025, before the expanded 5% deposit scheme came into effect.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Number-of-FHB-mortgages-issued.png\" width=\"660\" height=\"502\" alt=\"Number of FHB mortgages issued\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The value of mortgages issued to owner-occupier first home buyers declined by a heavier 6.7% in the March quarter of 2026 to $17.9 billion. Even so, the value of mortgages issued over the quarter was still 7.5% higher than the September quarter of 2025, before the expanded 5% deposit scheme came into effect.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Value-of-FHB-mortgages-issued.png\" width=\"660\" height=\"503\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Value of FHB mortgages issued\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the data suggest that the expanded 5% deposit scheme provided short-term stimulus to the housing market, but that the impacts were front-loaded and have faded.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, recent analysis from Cotality showed that over the first six months of the expanded scheme, homes with values under the price caps increased in value by 6.7%, compared with a 3.6% rise for properties valued above the price caps.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Price-growth-above-FHB-price-caps.png\" width=\"462\" height=\"660\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Price growth above price caps\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Cotality<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the expanded 5% deposit scheme drove up the prices of entry-level homes, ultimately making them more expensive for first home buyers.<\/p>\n<p>Future first home buyers now face the prospect of paying more for housing and taking on larger mortgages than they otherwise would.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Albanese government\u2019s expanded 5% deposit scheme for first home buyers took effect on 1 October 2025. Over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-671345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}