First Home Buyers
Your first home is closer than your feed suggests.
Find out what you can actually borrow, which schemes you qualify for, and what it really costs to get in, before you get your hopes up or waste a Saturday at inspections.
- A director maps your real borrowing power in plain English
- Access to 100+ lenders, not one bank's script
- We tell you if you're not ready yet, and exactly what to fix
- A reply within one business day, no pressure to proceed
Get started
Tell us what you're trying to do.
Who you'll be dealing with
Jonathon Radford, Director
- Master of Applied Finance, majoring in Investment Management
- Advanced Diploma of Financial Planning
- Diploma of Finance and Mortgage Broking Management
- 15+ years across commercial banking, investments and wealth management
- 15+ years of business ownership and operating experience
Finstac Pty Ltd, Credit Representative 582083, authorised under Elders Home Loans Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 384408
The situation
Most first home buyers are guessing.
The advice online contradicts itself. Bank staff read from a script. And nobody tells you plainly whether your deposit is enough, what stamp duty will actually cost, or which government schemes you genuinely qualify for.
So people either delay for a year they didn't need to delay, or they front up to one bank, get a number, and never learn that another lender would have said something completely different.
We start with your real position. If you're ready, we'll show you what's possible. If you're not, we'll tell you exactly what to fix and roughly how long it takes.
Why Finstac
What you get working with us.
Your actual borrowing power
Assessed across the 100+ lenders we have access to, not estimated from one bank's calculator. Policies differ enormously, and that difference is often six figures.
Every scheme you qualify for
Government guarantees, duty concessions and grants change regularly. We check what applies to your situation, in your state, right now.
The full cost, upfront
Deposit, duty, legals, inspections and lender fees. No surprises in settlement week.
No pressure, ever
If the answer is 'wait six months and do these three things', that's the answer we'll give you.
Want the real number, not an estimate?
A director will run your actual position across the 100+ lenders we have access to.
The process
How it works.
Tell us what you're trying to do
A quick conversation gives us the context: your goal, your timeline and where you're up to.
We assess your position
We look at your circumstances, objectives and the lending options actually available to you across the lenders we have access to.
We structure the strategy
We identify an appropriate lending approach, and explain the trade-offs in plain English before you commit.
We handle the process
From application through to settlement, we stay involved and keep you updated.
Free guide
The First Home Buyer's Plain English Guide
National edition
- What you can realistically borrow, and what lenders actually look at
- How much deposit you really need, and how LMI can sometimes be avoided
- The grants and concessions available, and who qualifies
- The upfront costs most first buyers forget until settlement
Straight answers
The questions we get asked most.
The things people actually ask before they pick up the phone. If yours isn't here, ask us directly and we'll give you a straight answer either way.
Possibly, though the threshold is lower than most people assume. Government schemes allow eligible buyers to purchase with as little as 5%, and in some cases without Lenders Mortgage Insurance. It's worth ten minutes to find out rather than assuming.
In most cases we're paid a commission by the lender when your loan settles, not by you. We'll always be transparent about how we're paid before you proceed. It is all set out in our Credit Guide.
You can, and sometimes your bank is the right answer. But they can only offer you their own products and their own policy. We compare across the 100+ lenders we have access to and tell you when your own bank wins.
An initial conversation and a borrowing capacity assessment don't involve a credit enquiry. We only submit an application to a lender once you've decided to proceed.
We won't pretend to time the market for you. Nobody can. What we can do is tell you what's achievable now, what it would cost, and what happens to that picture if rates or prices move.
Income and how stable it is, your living expenses against a benchmark, existing debts including HECS and credit card limits, your deposit and where it came from, and your credit history. The property itself matters too. Some lenders won't fund certain apartment types or locations.
That depends on the loan amount, rate and term. Our repayment calculator gives you the figure in about thirty seconds, and it's worth running before you fall in love with a listing.
Pre-approval commonly takes a few days to a couple of weeks depending on the lender and how complete your documents are. From signing a contract to settlement is typically 30–60 days.
A system-generated pre-approval hasn't been seen by a human and can fall over. A fully assessed one has had a credit assessor review your documents. Ask which you have. It matters a great deal at auction.
Yes, and it's common. Lenders assess the application jointly. How you hold the property is a separate question worth raising with a solicitor.
First home buyer · Case study
Told to come back in two years. They bought in four months.
The situation
A couple on two salaries, renting, with a deposit well short of 20%. Their bank's online calculator and a branch appointment both suggested they were a long way off, so they had stopped looking.
The problem
The assessment treated two credit cards on their limits rather than their balances, applied a benchmark expense figure higher than they actually spent, and assumed a 20% deposit was the entry point. None of that was wrong, but none of it was the whole picture either.
What we did
- Reduced and closed credit card limits that were suppressing capacity but not being used
- Documented actual living expenses properly rather than accepting the benchmark default
- Checked eligibility for the government deposit scheme, which removed the LMI assumption entirely
- Selected a lender whose policy treated their income type and employment history favourably
The outcome
They purchased with a deposit well under 20% and no Lenders Mortgage Insurance, four months after being told they were two years away. The credit card changes alone accounted for a meaningful part of the increase in assessed capacity.
The numbers
- Combined income
- $168,000
- Deposit saved
- $48,000
- Credit card limits closed
- $27,000
- Initial bank assessment
- ~$540,000
- Approved amount
- $712,000
Illustrative example based on typical client scenarios. Individual circumstances, lender policies and outcomes vary. Not a guarantee of approval or result.
More like thisLender access
Access to 100+ banks and specialist lenders, including:
Plus many more specialist and private lenders
Our people
The people behind Finstac.
A small senior team, by design. You deal directly with the people who built the business, from the first conversation through to settlement.
Meet our people
Ready when you are.
Three quick questions, then a director comes back to you within one business day. No obligation, and we'll tell you honestly if the answer is “not yet”.