First Home Guarantee vs Help to Buy vs FHOG: which SA scheme gets you the most?

If you are buying your first home in South Australia, the government support on offer can feel like alphabet soup: First Home Guarantee, Help to Buy, FHOG, stamp duty relief. They are not the same thing, they do not help in the same way, and the one that suits you depends on your savings, your income, and whether you are buying new or established. This guide breaks down the three main schemes and how to compare them for your actual numbers.

One thing up front: scheme rules, price caps and income limits change with budgets and policy updates. Treat the figures here as the shape of each scheme, and confirm the current detail with the official sources linked below before you act.

The three levers a SA first home buyer can pull

At a high level:

• First Home Guarantee attacks the deposit problem (it lets you buy with less deposit and skip LMI).
• Help to Buy attacks the loan size problem (the government co-buys part of the home so you borrow less).
• FHOG plus stamp duty relief attacks the upfront cash problem (a grant and a tax saving, mainly on new homes).

They solve different bottlenecks, which is exactly why "which is best" has no single answer.

First Home Guarantee: a 5% deposit with no LMI

Under the First Home Guarantee (administered by Housing Australia), an eligible first home buyer can purchase with a deposit as low as 5% and avoid Lenders Mortgage Insurance, because the government guarantees the gap a lender would normally insure. You still borrow the rest of the price and you own 100% of the home.

The trade-off: a smaller deposit means a bigger loan and bigger repayments, and you still need the income to service that full loan. It suits buyers who can comfortably make repayments but have been stuck saving a 20% deposit while prices move. An Adelaide price cap applies, and from late 2025 the scheme was broadened, so check the current cap and eligibility.

Help to Buy: the government co-owns part of your home

Help to Buy is a shared-equity scheme. The government contributes a share of the purchase price (a larger share for new homes than for established ones) and co-owns that portion of the property. Because the government has chipped in, your loan is smaller, your deposit can be lower, and your repayments drop accordingly.

The catch is ownership: when you sell (or buy out the government's stake), you repay that share of the home's value at that time, including any growth on it. Help to Buy has income caps and property price caps, and a set number of places. It suits lower-income buyers who want the smallest possible mortgage and are comfortable sharing ownership and future capital growth. For a deeper look, see our guide to SA shared equity.

FHOG and stamp duty relief: cash and tax, mostly on new homes

South Australia's First Home Owner Grant is a $15,000 payment for eligible buyers of a new home (a newly built or substantially renovated home, or building one). On top of that, SA offers stamp duty relief for eligible first home buyers, which is most generous on new homes and vacant land and can remove a large upfront cost entirely.

Because both are weighted heavily toward new builds, this lever rewards buyers willing to buy or build new rather than purchase established. Confirm current grant rules and stamp duty thresholds with RevenueSA, and use the True Cost Calculator to see the stamp duty saving in dollars for your price.

How they compare

Scheme	What it solves	Best for	Main catch
First Home Guarantee	Small deposit, no LMI	Good income, low deposit	Bigger loan and repayments
Help to Buy	Smaller loan via shared equity	Lower income buyers	Government co-owns and shares growth
FHOG + stamp duty relief	Upfront cash and tax	New-build buyers	Mostly new homes only

Can you combine them?

Sometimes, yes. The deposit-side schemes (First Home Guarantee, Help to Buy) and the cash-side support (FHOG, stamp duty relief) target different things, so an eligible buyer of a new home may be able to stack a grant or stamp duty saving with a deposit scheme. But you generally cannot use the First Home Guarantee and Help to Buy together, since both restructure how you fund the purchase. Eligibility overlaps are exactly where rules get fiddly, so this is the point to confirm with Housing Australia, RevenueSA and your lender or broker.

Which scheme gets you the most house?

This is the question that actually matters, and the answer is personal. The most house usually goes to whichever scheme best fixes your bottleneck:

• Stuck on deposit but strong income, buying established? The First Home Guarantee often unlocks the most.
• Modest income and you want a small, manageable mortgage? Help to Buy can stretch your budget furthest, at the cost of shared growth.
• Happy to buy or build new? FHOG plus stamp duty relief can hand you the biggest upfront saving.

The only way to know is to run your own savings and income through each one.

The best scheme is not the most generous on paper, it is the one that removes the specific thing standing between you and the home you want.

How to compare them for your numbers

The First Home Buyer Scheme Navigator does exactly this. Enter your savings and income, pick new or established, and it compares the schemes side by side, showing for each the most expensive house you could buy, how much the government effectively contributes, your loan, your repayment, and which Adelaide suburbs come into reach. Pair it with the Borrowing Power tool to sanity-check what a bank will lend, and the first home buyer guide for the full step-by-step.

The bottom line

The First Home Guarantee, Help to Buy and the FHOG are not competitors so much as three different keys for three different locks: deposit, loan size, and upfront cash. Work out which one is actually blocking you, check the current caps and eligibility with the official sources, and run your real numbers through the Scheme Navigator before you decide. The right choice is the one that fits your situation, not the one with the biggest headline.