How much deposit do you need to buy a house in Australia?

Deposit = price × (1 − LVR). Cash to settle is that amount plus buying costs, and sometimes LMI.

Labelled illustration. Price $800,000. A 20 per cent deposit is $160,000 and an 80 per cent LVR. A 10 per cent deposit is $80,000 and a 90 per cent LVR. A 5 per cent deposit is $40,000 and a 95 per cent LVR. None of those figures includes duty.

Moneysmart’s example: borrow $450,000 to buy a $600,000 home and the LVR is 75 per cent. The lower the LVR, the less you borrow and the less likely LMI becomes. See what LVR is.

If you have $180,000 saved and treat all of it as a 20 per cent deposit on $800,000, you have not paid duty. In a high-duty state the transfer tax alone can be tens of thousands of dollars. After duty, titles, legal and inspection, the leftover equity may push the LVR above 80 per cent and trigger LMI.

Work the cash-to-settle stack first. The deposit is what remains after those lines, not the whole savings balance. Moneysmart’s general emergency-fund target is three months of expenses. That reserve is not a deposit.

Housing Australia currently brands the former Home Guarantee Scheme as the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme. It is described as support to buy a home. A 2024 First Home Guarantee factsheet stated investment properties are not supported, and that applicants can be first-home buyers or people who have not owned property in Australia in the previous 10 years. Confirm the current rules with Housing Australia and a participating lender.

State first-home grants and duty concessions are a different stack. Buying an investment first can change later eligibility. That is a separate page: first-home buyer or rentvestor.

• Calling 20 per cent “enough” without adding duty.
• Using the 5% Deposit Scheme as if it applied to an investment.
• Treating LMI as optional colour rather than a cash or debt line.
• Putting the emergency reserve into the deposit so the calculator looks funded.
• Assuming a lender will accept the LVR the percentage implies.

The rentvesting calculator asks for current savings and an LVR. It then computes deposit as price × (1 − LVR) and adds duty and the legal and pest estimates. If savings are short, it reports a shortfall. It does not add LMI and does not apply first-home duty concessions. The stamp-duty calculator can apply a first-home flag where the schedule supports it.

A 20 per cent deposit does not establish that the purchase is affordable, that the lender will approve the loan, or that you will still have a reserve after settlement. Approval is a different test: borrowing capacity versus what you can afford.

Pick a price you can defend. Run duty for that state and buyer use. Subtract duty, titles, legal and inspection from available savings. The remainder is the largest deposit you can fund without touching the reserve. Convert that to an LVR. Ask a lender whether that LVR is acceptable and whether LMI applies. Then decide whether the leftover cash is still a buffer.