Deposit savings Ideally, you should save as much as possible before buying a home. The minimum required deposit is 10%, but aim for 20% if possible. If you're borrowing more than 80%1 of the property value, you'll need to take out Lenders' Mortgage Insurance or Low Deposit Premium.
New research by Finder found that the average deposit size used by first home buyers to get their foot on the market has grown to $119,560. That's about 30 per cent more than the average full-time salary of $90,916.
You can avoid paying LMI if you have a deposit that is at least 20% of the home's purchase price. So, if you're buying a home for $300,000 you'll need at least $60,000 to cover a 20% deposit.
In total, you will need 8-10% of the purchase price in savings to afford a home. So for example, if you were buying a place for $400,000 you would need around 10% or $40,000 in savings.
Most Australian mortgage lenders require a deposit of 10-20% for home loans. With a deposit of $10,000, most lenders would only approve you for a $100,000 home loan. You may be approved for a larger loan if you pay more lenders mortgage insurance.
To put this in context, if you were buying a house for $600,000, lenders ideally would like you to have a deposit of $120,000 (20% of the property's value). If you have only saved $60,000 but you have sufficient income to support the loan, you may be able to take advantage of Lenders Mortgage Insurance.
Home deposit size
If you've been able to save a large deposit to buy a home, a lender will likely lend you more. However, lenders will generally not let you borrow more than 90% of a property's value. For example, if a property costs $500,000 and you have a $50,000 the deposit, the lender will only lend you $450,000.
This means if you're looking to buy a house with a value of $800,000, you'll need a deposit somewhere between $40,000 and $80,000.
Here's a simple example: For a $500,000 home, a deposit is likely to be between $25,000 (5%) and $100,000 (20%). A low deposit home loan can help you get your dream home faster, because you don't have to wait as long to save a deposit. But the catch is, the extra cost of lenders mortgage insurance.
“But if you're willing to be open-minded about your loan-to-value ratio and location, you can definitely buy a good investment property with a $100,000 deposit.”
Usually, 20% of the full value of the house is a good amount to aim for as a deposit. You can still get a loan if you have a smaller deposit, but you may need to take out Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) which adds an additional cost to your loan. It'll also take longer to pay off.
While a $10,000 deposit is low, you can still buy a home with this low deposit depending on your lender. Some lenders allow low deposit loans as long as you pay a one-time fee. The fee is security and shows the lending company that you are responsible and serious about owning a home.
Recommended deposit for a mortgage
So, a 20% deposit will normally get you a mortgage with a lower interest than a mortgage that lets you have a 10% deposit. Also, keep this in mind. A deposit of 15% and a deposit for 17% give you access to the same deals. You only get better deals by going up 5% more to 20%.
With a first-time buyer mortgage, you're likely to be looking for a 90% or 95% mortgage deal (meaning you'll need a 5% or 10% deposit saved). When it comes to borrowing money in any capacity, it all comes down to risk.
Is a 5% deposit enough to buy a house? Many lenders will let you put down a small deposit of just 5% of the property's value, which is usually the minimum amount required for a residential mortgage. But bear in mind that the lender has to be comfortable to allow you to borrow 95% of the property's value.
So, if you make $80,000 a year, you should be looking at homes priced between $240,000 to $320,000. You can further limit this range by figuring out a comfortable monthly mortgage payment. To do this, take your monthly after-tax income, subtract all current debt payments and then multiply that number by 25%.
The bigger your deposit, the cheaper the monthly payment on your mortgage. A bigger deposit is better - but don't stretch yourself beyond your means. There are bound to be extra costs, like stamp duty and legal fees, so make sure you factor these in when deciding on how much to deposit.
You'll need to save up to 5% or more of the purchase price as a deposit, and borrow the rest of the money (the mortgage) from a lender such as a bank or building society. The loan is 'secured' against the value of your home until it's paid off.
The First Home Super Saver scheme allows you to make voluntary contributions to your super to help save a deposit for your first home. You can withdraw this amount, plus investment earnings when you are ready to buy a home.
The 10/15 rule is when you apply 1/10th of your monthly mortgage as an additional weekly principal payment. ? As an example, this scenario was calculated with a $300,000 mortgage at a 6% interest rate, which will leads to a $3,000 a month mortgage payment and $300/week extra principal payments to hit the 10/15 rule.
Understand Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI)
In most locations worth investing in, a $30,000 deposit won't get you to that 80% Loan to Value Ratio (LVR) sweet-spot. That doesn't mean that you can't buy a property, but you may incur LMI fees.
On an annual income of $80,000 after-tax, a lender may offer you a mortgage of $1.75 million. This assumes that the applicant's credit score is at least average. It also assumes that there are no outstanding debts owed. The applicant's expenses are also zero.
Simply put, that means if you were looking to buy a property for $500,000 you would need a deposit of $100,000.
It's possible to borrow five times my salary for well-qualified homebuyers. To understand the amount any mortgage applicant may borrow, we explore borrowing capacity and an example. The borrowing capacity calculator takes into account an applicant's income and expenses.