Total Upfront Cost to Buy Your First Home in Australia

The short answer

Your total upfront cost to buy a first home is your deposit plus stamp (transfer) duty, lenders mortgage insurance (LMI), and government and legal fees. As a rough guide, budget for a 10-20% deposit of the purchase price plus another 3-6% for everything else, though first-home-buyer duty concessions or the First Home Guarantee can cut that "everything else" to almost nothing. For an $800,000 NSW first home with a 10% deposit, total cash at settlement is around $83,000-$85,000 once you add fees but skip duty and LMI (more below).

How upfront costs work in Australia

The money you need on settlement day is made up of a few moving parts:

• Deposit: the slice of the price you pay yourself, with the rest covered by your loan. A 20% deposit avoids LMI; many first buyers go in with 5-15%.
• Stamp (transfer) duty: a state tax on the property transfer, calculated on a sliding scale. Each state and territory sets its own rates and first-home-buyer concessions. In NSW, first home buyers pay no transfer duty on homes up to $800,000, with a tapered concession to $1,000,000 (Revenue NSW).
• LMI: a one-off insurance premium your lender charges when your deposit is under 20% (loan-to-value ratio, or LVR, above 80%). It protects the lender, not you. The premium rises steeply as LVR climbs and can be capitalised (added to the loan) instead of paid in cash.
• Government fees: transfer and mortgage registration fees, typically a few hundred dollars.
• Conveyancing/legal: usually $1,000-$2,500 for a solicitor or conveyancer.

Schemes that change the maths

• First Home Guarantee: from 1 October 2025 eligible first home buyers can buy with as little as a 5% deposit and pay no LMI, because the government guarantees the gap to 20%. There are no income caps and place limits were removed, with property price caps by location (for example, $1.5m for Sydney and major regional centres, $800k for the rest of NSW) (Housing Australia).
• First Home Super Saver (FHSS): lets you withdraw eligible voluntary super contributions (up to $15,000 per year and $50,000 lifetime, plus earnings) toward your deposit (ATO).

Worked example: $800,000 first home in NSW

Say you're buying an existing home for $800,000 in NSW with a 10% deposit.

Item	Amount	Notes
Purchase price	$800,000
Deposit (10%)	$80,000	Loan = $720,000, LVR 90%
Stamp duty	$0	First-home exempt up to $800,000 in NSW
LMI (90% LVR)	~$12,900	~1.79% of the loan; can be capitalised
Transfer + registration fees	~$340
Conveyancing	~$1,800
Total cash at settlement	~$82,140	Deposit + fees, if LMI is capitalised

A quick sanity check on duty: NSW transfer duty over $372,000 is $11,152 plus $4.50 per $100 above $372,000, so a standard $800,000 buyer would owe $30,412. The first-home exemption wipes that to $0 here. If you instead went in with a 20% deposit ($160,000), LMI drops to $0 and your loan falls to $640,000.

Using the First Home Guarantee with a 5% deposit ($40,000), you'd pay no LMI at all, bringing cash needed down to roughly $42,000 plus fees. The trade-off is a larger $760,000 loan and higher repayments.

For the loan itself, $720,000 at 6% over 30 years (monthly P&I) is about $4,317/month. (A standard $600,000 loan on the same terms is ~$3,597/month.)

Model this in True Loan

True Loan calculates all of this for free, client-side, for all 8 states and territories. To reproduce the example:

1. Set purchase price to $800,000 and deposit to 10% (or a dollar amount).
2. Choose NSW and tick the first-home-buyer option so the duty concession applies.
3. Check the LMI estimate and toggle whether to capitalise it into the loan.
4. Add conveyancing and registration fees under upfront costs to see total funds required at settlement.

Want to weigh a 5% deposit (First Home Guarantee, no LMI) against a 20% deposit? Build both and put them side by side on trueloan.app/compare, where every scenario is shareable via URL. If you plan to park savings against the loan, use the dedicated Offset balance input; to model paying down faster, use the separate Extra repayment ($/month) input.

See also: how much deposit do I need?, stamp duty on an $800k NSW first home, and LMI on a $600k loan with a 10% deposit.

Common questions and mistakes

• Does the deposit include stamp duty? No. Duty, LMI and fees sit on top of your deposit, and budgeting only for the deposit is the most common shortfall.
• Can I add LMI to the loan? Usually yes. It can be capitalised, so it isn't cash you need on the day, but it grows your loan and total interest.
• Is LMI refundable if I sell? Generally no. It insures the lender for the life of that loan.
• Do all states exempt first home buyers? No, thresholds and concessions differ. Check your state revenue office before relying on a number.
• Does a 5% deposit mean no LMI? Only under a scheme like the First Home Guarantee. Outside it, a 5% deposit means high LMI.

---

These are general-information estimates for the 2025-26 financial year, not financial or credit advice. Verify current rates, caps and eligibility with official sources (your state revenue office, the ATO, Housing Australia and moneysmart.gov.au) before making decisions.