Buy your first home in seven steps.
Each step covers one part of buying your first home, with a short setup and the right tool for that stage. Finish a step, then move on to the next.
Progress saves on this device. A free account keeps it on all your devices.
Four ways to buy your first home
Estimates use the same repayment, stamp duty and LMI formulas as our calculators, at 6.00% over 30 years, with your figures above. Eligibility for each scheme (income caps, property price caps, available places, state availability) is not yet checked here — confirm with the scheme administrator and your lender. General information only, not financial advice.
What buying will cost all-in
The full cost of buying, not just the price, and whether the repayments fit your income.
Where your budget can buy
A price band to search in, and a way to shortlist suburbs around the places you already go.
Keep track of every place
Log each place while it’s fresh in your mind, with a note about what you noticed. Comparing gets much easier later.
The final stretch
Five things to finish before settlement day.
Track your contract deadlines
Missing a contract deadline can cost you the deposit or the loan. Enter the dates from your contract and the tracker counts down each one.
What the First Home Journey is
Buying a first home in Australia usually takes six months or more, and most people do it without much of a map. The First Home Journey breaks the process into seven steps, in the order it happens, and computes the numbers for your situation rather than a national average.
The seven steps
- Get your bearings: a two-minute setup covering where you're buying, what you earn, what you've saved and where you are in the process.
- Find your path: the 5% Deposit Scheme, Help to Buy and the no-scheme paths side by side, with when you could buy, cash needed, LMI and repayments, and the price and income caps checked against your answers.
- Set your budget: every upfront cost including conveyancing, a lender-style stress test at the 3% buffer, and a firm maximum price.
- Pick your ground: suburbs whose verified sale medians fit your band, from licensed Valuer-General data, plus a search across 1,473 suburbs with current government figures.
- Hunt & compare: a record of every place you browse, inspect, bid on or miss out on, each compared against your maximum.
- Seal the deal: the deadlines that start the day you sign (cooling-off, building and pest, finance approval, pre-approval expiry, settlement), each counted down.
- Settle & move in: the final checklist through to the keys.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the First Home Journey free?
- Yes. Every step is free and nothing is locked behind a paywall. You don't need an account to start; a free account adds saving across devices and sharing your journey with a partner.
- Which government schemes does it compare?
- The 5% Deposit Scheme (expanded First Home Guarantee), the federal Help to Buy shared-equity scheme, and your state's first-home stamp duty concessions, side by side with the no-scheme paths (saving to a 20% deposit, or buying sooner with a 10% deposit plus lenders mortgage insurance). Every figure is computed from your own numbers. Scheme eligibility should always be confirmed with the scheme administrator and your lender.
- Where does the suburb data come from?
- Licensed CC BY 4.0 state-government datasets: sale medians from the Valuer-General of Victoria and the Valuer-General of South Australia (metro Adelaide), and median rents from the Queensland RTA, SA Consumer & Business Services and Tasmanian rental bonds. Every figure carries its period and source, and rents are never presented as prices.
- Do I have to start at the beginning?
- No. The first question asks where you are in your journey, and takes you straight to the step that matches. The earlier steps stay open to go back over any time.
- Can my partner or family follow along?
- Yes. You can share a follow-along link (view-only, no account needed) or a partner link that lets the two of you work the same journey together, with changes syncing both ways.
- Is this financial advice?
- No. The journey is general information and education only. The formulas are shown, the assumptions are stated, and nothing here considers your personal circumstances. Talk to a licensed adviser, broker or your lender before acting.
Prefer a single calculation? All of it exists standalone in the free calculator suite — stamp duty for every state, borrowing power, the first home buyer grants calculator and more. How we source and verify data: methodology · data sources.