First Home Buyers in Geelong: Why Right Now Could Be Your Moment
Is now a good time to buy? Honestly, yes. Here is why I think that.
The government has been rolling out policies that are starting to push investors out of the existing property market. Capital gains tax reforms, negative gearing being stripped back on existing properties. These are changes that are going to take a lot of investor competition out of suburbs that first home buyers actually want to buy in.
I have personally seen first home buyers go to open homes in Leopold, Bell Park, North Geelong, Bellpost Hill, Saint Albans Park. Your typical first home buyer suburbs. And watched buyers advocates come in on behalf of investors and pay twenty to thirty thousand over asking. A lot of these properties are simply not going to first home buyers right now. That is the reality.
But that is changing. Victoria has had the slowest property growth in the country, and I genuinely hope these policy shifts give first home buyers the breathing room they deserve. I am not saying every new policy is perfect for everyone. It is not. But for first home buyers in Geelong specifically, I think a real opportunity is opening up.
The Government Guarantor Scheme
I never call it the First Home Deposit Scheme. I call it the government guarantor scheme, because that is exactly what it is.
Think about it this way. When a lot of buyers go to their parents and ask mum and dad to go guarantor on their loan, the bank feels comfortable lending because there is someone backing them. The government guarantor scheme works on the same principle, except it is the government stepping in as that guarantor instead of your parents.
What it means practically is you can buy with a 5% deposit and avoid LMI. And since October 2025, the income caps and place limits have been removed, so it is open to far more buyers than it used to be.
What LMI Actually Is
Let me clear something up about LMI, because it is widely misunderstood.
LMI is not there to protect you if you lose your job. It is not there to cover your repayments if things go wrong. LMI is an insurance policy that protects the bank from you. If you default on your mortgage and the bank ends up out of pocket, LMI covers their loss. You pay the premium, but you are not the one being protected. The bank is.
That is why avoiding it through the government guarantor scheme is such a material saving. We are talking tens of thousands of dollars on a typical Geelong purchase that you are no longer handing over for a product that does not benefit you.
Victorian Stamp Duty: The Numbers That Actually Matter
Victoria's stamp duty concession for first home buyers removes stamp duty entirely on properties up to $600,000, and reduces it significantly on homes up to $750,000. On top of that, if you are buying or building a new home under $750,000, you pick up a $10,000 First Home Owner Grant as well.
To put real numbers around it, a buyer purchasing at $650,000 in Belmont would normally be looking at around $34,000 in stamp duty. With the concession, that drops to roughly $8,000. That is $26,000 back in your pocket before you have even walked through the front door.
And unlike some other states where the support is weighted toward new builds only, Victoria's concession applies to established homes too. So you are not locked into new construction if that is not what suits you.
Geelong Qualifies as Regional
There is a separate stream under the federal program called the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, and Geelong qualifies. This means buyers here are not competing against metro buyers for the same pool of places.
If someone has told you that you need a 10% or 20% deposit to avoid LMI, it is worth having a proper conversation about whether the government guarantor scheme applies to your situation, because chances are it does.
Using Super to Save for Your Deposit
The First Home Super Saver Scheme lets you make voluntary contributions into super and withdraw up to $50,000 of those contributions, plus earnings, toward your deposit. Because contributions go in at 15% tax rather than your marginal rate, it is a genuinely tax-effective way to save, particularly if you are in a higher bracket.
You can contribute up to $15,000 per financial year, so at maximum contributions you are looking at just under four years to reach the cap. It suits buyers who have a bit of time on their side and want their savings working harder while they get ready to buy.
How Offset Accounts Actually Work
Having money in your offset account does not change your repayments. What it changes is the makeup of your repayment.
Here is what I mean. Say your repayment is $3,000 a month. At the start of your loan, that might be $2,000 going toward interest and $1,000 going toward principal. Now, if you had $100,000 sitting in your offset account, your repayment is still $3,000 a month. That does not change. But because the bank calculates interest on your loan balance minus whatever is in your offset, you owe less interest. So that same $3,000 might now be $1,000 interest and $2,000 principal. More of every repayment is chipping away at the actual loan.
These are not exact figures. Every loan is different. But that is the principle, and when you see it laid out visually, the impact of having money in your offset becomes very clear very quickly.
Get Pre-Approval Before You Start Looking
Pre-approval gives you a confirmed borrowing limit before you walk into a single open home. It does not lock in a rate, but it does mean that when you find the right property, you can move on it rather than scrambling to get finance sorted under pressure.
In Geelong right now, good properties still attract genuine competition. Having pre-approval means you are a serious buyer. It also forces a realistic conversation about what you can actually borrow, which is always a better starting point than an online calculator.
Pre-approval is typically valid for three to six months. If anything changes in that period, a new job or a new debt, let your broker know because it may affect your position.
If you want to sit down and work through what all of this looks like for your specific situation, get in touch. Happy to go through the numbers with you.
