How much do I need to buy a house?

The deposit is the number everyone saves for. The costs on top of it are the number that delays settlements. This calculator adds duty, registry fees and LMI from the official schedules to the quotes you supply, and tells you the total cash you need on the day.

How much deposit do you need?

It is set by what a lender will accept and what it costs you to borrow more. Most lenders charge lenders mortgage insurance once the loan is more than 80% of the property’s value, so 20% is the usual target; below it, many will lend with the insurance added. Here is what each choice takes in cash on the opening purchase, a $750,000 home in Queensland, for an owner-occupier who is not claiming a first home concession and not using the 5% Deposit Scheme:

The cash column assumes you pay the insurance at settlement; many lenders will let you add it to the loan instead, which takes it out of the cash figure and puts it into what you repay with interest. The LMI column is an indicative premium band plus Queensland’s 9% duty on the premium, not a quote. Whatever the deposit, the duty, registry fees and legals sit on top of it.

Housing Australia says an eligible buyer using the 5% Deposit Scheme pays no LMI, because a government guarantee covers the part of the loan above 80% of the value — which would take $35,826 off the cash on the 5% row. The price has to be within the scheme’s cap. In Queensland that is $1,000,000 in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, and $700,000 elsewhere, so this home is under it only in the higher-cap areas. Who qualifies, and when LMI can come back, is on the LMI calculator page.

A first home buyer can save part of the deposit inside super through the First Home Super Saver scheme, which counts up to $15,000 of contributions a year and $50,000 in all, with earnings set by the ATO rather than the fund.

A 20% deposit is not 20% of what you need

The saving target everyone quotes is a share of the purchase price. The cash requirement is that share plus stamp duty, registry fees, legals and inspections — and none of it can be borrowed. On the default figures above, the deposit is $150,000 and the costs on top are $26,050, which is 3.5% of the price again.

That gap is why settlements get delayed and why offers get withdrawn. It is also why the first thing worth checking is not what you can borrow but what you must pay in cash on the day.

Duty is the part that moves most

Everything else on the list is roughly the same wherever you buy. Stamp duty is not: it is set by each state, it scales steeply with price, and a first home concession can remove it entirely. Switching the buyer type above is usually the single biggest change you can make to this total, which is worth knowing before you decide whether you qualify.

For the full picture in your state, including concession caps and the exact schedule, the stamp duty calculators go deeper than this summary does.

A first home buyer of a new home may also get the First Home Owner Grant: seven of the eight states and territories pay one, on new homes only, and four of them cap the value. Choose first home buyer and a new home above, and the grant appears under the total, worked out by the same engine as the grant calculator.

If your deposit is under 20%

Lenders mortgage insurance appears, and it is not small. It protects the lender, not you, and it is charged once. Many lenders let you add it to the loan rather than pay it at settlement, which helps the cash problem and costs more overall because you pay interest on it for years. The LMI calculator shows the premium bands and the duty each state charges on top of the premium.