In October 2021, the Victorian Homebuyer Fund (VHF) was launched as a shared equity home ownership scheme where the State makes a financial contribution in exchange for a share, or proportional interest, in a property.
The $500m scheme allows people to work with a lender to buy a house sooner without the burden of saving for a large deposit. Eligible homebuyers receive a contribution of up to 25% towards the purchase price of their property from the State of Victoria, reducing their minimum required deposit to 5% and avoiding the need to pay Lenders Mortgage Insurance. The buyer then works with their choice of a small group of approved lenders to seek the remaining 70% of the purchase price.
For eligible Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander homebuyers, this contribution is up to 35% and the minimum required deposit is 3.5%.
Ultimately, the VHF will support more than 3,000 Victorians to become homeowners.
From launch until 30 June 2022, the Victorian Government has directly invested more than $260m to help more than 1,600 Victorians buy a home through the VHF. As at July 1, another 1,200 had been approved to participate in the scheme and were house hunting.
Between October 2021 and 30 June 2022:
- About 90% of the settled properties were in metro Melbourne. More than 170 of the VHF customers are were based in regional Victoria.
- The top 5 metro Melbourne purchase locations were Pakenham, Tarneit, Point Cook, Reservoir and Truganina.
- The top 5 regional Victoria purchase locations were Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Gippsland and Bass Coast.
- The median purchase price among participants was $632,500.
- The largest age group of participants were millennials, aged 25-34.
- 49% of purchases have been by single participants, while 51% have been by multi-person households, mostly couples.
![A shared equity scheme](/sites/default/files/2022-11/8%20%26%209_VICTORIAN%20HOMEBUYER%20FUND_360pxW%20x%20300pxH-01.png)
![Criteria: Eligible location; income of $125kPA or less; reside in the property.](/sites/default/files/2022-11/8%20%26%209_VICTORIAN%20HOMEBUYER%20FUND_360pxW%20x%20300pxH-02.png)
![Obligations: complete annual reviews; building insurance; maintain your property](/sites/default/files/2022-11/8%20%26%209_VICTORIAN%20HOMEBUYER%20FUND_360pxW%20x%20300pxH-03.png)
![5% minimum deposit](/sites/default/files/2022-11/8%20%26%209_VICTORIAN%20HOMEBUYER%20FUND_360pxW%20x%20300pxH-04.png)
![25% State of Victoria](/sites/default/files/2022-11/8%20%26%209_VICTORIAN%20HOMEBUYER%20FUND_360pxW%20x%20300pxH-05.png)
![70% chosen lender](/sites/default/files/2022-11/8%20%26%209_VICTORIAN%20HOMEBUYER%20FUND_360pxW%20x%20300pxH-06.png)
![$260M help provided to more than 1600 Victorians](/sites/default/files/2022-11/8%20%26%209_VICTORIAN%20HOMEBUYER%20FUND_360pxW%20x%20300pxH-07.png)
![$632 median purchase price among participants](/sites/default/files/2022-11/8%20%26%209_VICTORIAN%20HOMEBUYER%20FUND_360pxW%20x%20300pxH-08.png)
![25-34 years: largest age group of participants](/sites/default/files/2022-11/8%20%26%209_VICTORIAN%20HOMEBUYER%20FUND_360pxW%20x%20300pxH-09.png)