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. Scheme price caps and income caps are checked against your answers; state availability and any lender-side conditions are not — 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 assumptions are stated, the formulas are the same ones published on our calculators, 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.