Home loan guide
How The FHSSS can help you buy a home faster
The First Home Super Saver Scheme lets you save for your deposit inside super, where before-tax contributions are taxed less. The catch is the rules. The deadlines, the tax on release, the order your contributions are counted and the deemed earnings all change what you end up with.
I'm a mortgage broker in Brisbane, and this guide covers how FHSS works and where it trips people up, so you can decide if it fits your plan.
First Home Super Saver Scheme (also known as FHSSS) is a government scheme made to assist you with speeding up the time it takes to save a deposit and buy your first home. You’re probably thinking isn’t super for retirement? It is, but the government lets you dip in early to help with home ownership.
FHSS can release eligible voluntary before-tax and after-tax super contributions to help you buy your first home. The amount released depends on the contribution type, FHSS limits and other scheme rules.
Example:
Fiona has been working as a Marketing Associate, makes $50k a year and wants to use the FHSSS to speed up the time it takes to save for her first home purchase. She has never owned a home before and wants to buy a place as soon as possible but has no savings.
Fiona asks her work to take voluntary before-tax contributions of $10k a year from her salary and pay them into her super fund. This works out to roughly $833 per month from her before-tax pay.
This money is being taken before tax, which reduces how much tax she pays per year on her total pay. In effect, her take-home pay only drops by about $7.2k a year, or about $600 a month.
After 5 years, Fiona could have about $50k released for her deposit. If she saved the same take-home pay in a bank account at 4.5% interest, she'd have about $39k, so FHSS puts her about $11k ahead. That assumes 2026-27 tax rates, a deemed SIC rate of about 7.4% for the whole 5 years and bank interest taxed at her marginal rate. Use the calculator in section 7 to run your own numbers.
The First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSSS) has quite a few pros and cons. Whether it’s “good” for you depends a lot on your income, how disciplined you are, and your home‑buying timeline.
It mostly comes down to your tax rate and how sure you are about buying in the next few years. FHSS helps with the deposit, not the loan, so look at first home buyer loans at the same time and plan how your deposit and repayments fit together.
FHSS is a good fit if:
It's less suited if:
If you'd like help working out the First Home Super Saver Scheme, our Brisbane mortgage broking team at Hunter Galloway is here to help. Contact us for a free assessment.
People who have never owned property in Australia can make extra contributions to their superannuation (known as voluntary contributions) from their pre-tax income to build a deposit for a home. You reduce your take-home pay but increase the amount your employer puts into your super.
So FHSS works by cutting the tax on the money you save, which should help you get to a deposit sooner.
As an example, you could put in $15k, $15k, $15k and then $5k over 4 financial years. That's $50k, the most FHSS will count. If you contribute before tax, your employer's super counts towards the same yearly concessional cap, so check you have room first.
The FHSS rules come from the ATO and are different from the First Home Owner Grant rules. To use the First Home Super Saver Scheme, you must meet these criteria:
FHSS can help you buy an established home or build a new one in Australia to live in. It doesn't set a loan type, loan term or price cap, and your lender still decides whether to approve the loan. You don't need to be an Australian citizen, an Australian resident or an Australian resident for tax purposes to use FHSS. Foreign investment rules may still limit what you can buy. The First Home Owner Grant has its own, separate rules.
The ATO looks at eligibility person by person. So couples, siblings and friends can each use their own FHSS contributions to buy the same property, and a co-buyer who has owned a home before doesn't stop you using it.
Example:
Andrew and Steve want to buy a property together. Andrew has owned property in Australia in the past and is ineligible for the FHSSS, but Steve has never owned property in Australia before.
Steve meets all the criteria for the FHSSS, so he can apply for the concessions in his own right and is not affected by Andrew having owned property in the past, even though they will end up buying a property together in the future.
There are some exceptions to the eligibility, including financial hardship provisions. If you have previously owned property but have suffered financial hardship that has resulted in a loss of ownership (including bankruptcy, divorce, loss of employment, or illness), you could be considered for the First Home Super Saver Scheme Hardship Application.
Read More: First Home Owners Grant Conditions for Queensland
FHSS can count up to $15,000 of eligible contributions from each financial year and $50,000 in total. These limits determine which contributions can be released under FHSS. They are different from the separate super contribution caps.
Voluntary contributions can either be concessional contributions from pre-tax income like salary sacrifice or personal contributions in which tax deductions can be claimed.
Non-concessional contributions can be made from after-tax income, and no-tax deduction can be claimed.
Concessional contributions include salary sacrifice contributions and are taxed at 15%, but the non-concessional contribution is made from your after-tax pay, so you will pay your regular marginal tax on these.
There are different caps to concessional and non-concessional contributions, which you can discuss with your accountant and financial adviser.
The amount you can release is limited and depends on the type of contribution you made to the fund. If you made a non-concessional contribution, 100% is eligible to be released, and if you made a concessional contribution, 85% of the amount is eligible to be released. We cover that in detail below.
Remember that the maximum amount that can be released is not the actual amount you will receive from the ATO. They will withhold the appropriate amount of tax and offset your balance against any outstanding Commonwealth debts.
You can check out the First Home Super Saver Scheme calculator to determine if FHSSS is right for you.
The benefits of the First Home Super Saver Scheme will depend on your taxable income and annual sacrifice amount. The ATO’s calculator can help you determine the total benefits.
The calculator compares saving through before-tax super contributions (up to $15k a year and $50k in total) with saving the same pay after tax in a regular savings account.
Read More: How to Buy a House (Step-By-Step Case Study)
Check to see if you are eligible for a home loan
When you apply to release your FHSS money, the ATO does more than just hand back what you chipped into super. It uses ordering rules and a “deemed earnings” formula to work out your maximum release.
Imagine this scenario (based on ATO-style rules):
Bottom line: The ATO counts your contributions in the order they were made, applies special ordering rules to contributions made at the same time and to mixed personal contributions, and adds deemed earnings at the SIC rate. So how and when you contribute matters, not just how much. Your release does not depend on your fund's actual returns.
As covered above, you can make extra payments (called voluntary contributions) to your superannuation fund with the intention of using those funds toward your first home.
If you are paid through an employer (i.e. you get payslips), you can ask your employer to reduce your take-home pay and increase your pre-tax contributions to your existing superannuation fund. Salary sacrifice contributions are generally taxed at 15% in super. When released through FHSS, eligible concessional amounts and associated earnings form the assessable FHSS released amount, which has separate tax treatment.
On the other hand, if you are self-employed, you can make contributions to your superannuation fund and claim a deduction for the personal contributions later. You need to be mindful of staying within the concessional contribution cap.
In either case, you do not need to let the superannuation fund know that you plan on participating in the First Home Super Saver Scheme. You only need to make these extra voluntary contributions. Then, when you are ready, you apply to the ATO to release the funds.
There are a few steps in withdrawing your voluntary super contributions, and your first point of call is the ATO, not your super fund.
Your FHSS maximum release takes the $15k a year and $50k total limits into account when the ATO works out how much can be released to you.
You can have only 1 active FHSS release request at a time. Include the full amount you want released. Once a release has been completed, you cannot use FHSS again. A mortgage broker can help you check the loan options before you request the release.
After you lodge a release request, it usually takes 15 to 20 business days for your fund and the ATO to process it and pay you. Incorrect contribution details or other issues can cause delays, so check your super fund's records first.
Allow for this processing time when planning your deposit and contract dates, and allow longer if there are issues with the request.
Read More: Housing Australia's First Home Super Saver Scheme fact sheet.
When the ATO releases your FHSS money, part of it is taxed, and it goes on your tax return for the year you asked for the release.
Bottom line: The assessable amount (before-tax contributions plus deemed earnings) counts as income for the year you requested the release, with the 30% offset. Report it on that year's tax return, along with the tax the ATO withheld. Be careful, because mistakes here are a common cause of unexpected tax bills.
You have up to 12 months from the date you request your FHSS release to sign a contract to buy or build a home, unless the ATO allows an extension.
You need to be purchasing a residential property to live in, and it cannot be:
You cannot use FHSS to buy vacant land. You may be able to use FHSS for a contract to build a home on vacant land if you apply for your FHSS determination before ownership of the land transfers to you. Sign the construction contract within 12 months of requesting your release, unless the ATO allows an extension. See how to build a home on vacant land.
If you do not sign a contract to buy or build a home within 12 months of requesting your FHSS release, you can either:
Would you like to learn about your situation?
The good news is that, yes, the First Home Super Saver Scheme can be used in conjunction with the First Home Owner Grant in Queensland, provided you meet the following eligibility criteria:
In Queensland, the $30k First Home Owner Grant is for eligible new homes valued under $750,000, including land, on contracts signed from 20 November 2023. So if you put $15k a year into FHSS for 2 years and add the $30k grant, you could have more than $50k towards your first home, before buying costs. If you contribute before tax it will usually be less than the full $60k, because only 85% counts and some tax comes out of the release. Your lender decides how it counts the grant and your savings.
You can check your eligibility for the first homeowner grant here.
Read More: Queensland First Home Owners Grant
Genuine savings show a lender that you have built up money over time. Treatment of released FHSS money and the evidence required depend on the lender. Lenders may also count any of the following:
Read More: What Is Genuine Savings?
The Super Home Buyer Scheme was a Coalition election proposal, not an available government grant. It proposed letting eligible first home buyers use up to 40% of their super, capped at $50,000, with repayment to super when the property was sold. It is not an application pathway for withdrawing your super under the current FHSS rules.
The First Home Super Saver Scheme is different. Eligible voluntary contributions can count up to $15,000 a financial year and $50,000 in total. The releasable amount includes 100% of eligible after-tax contributions, 85% of eligible concessional contributions and associated earnings calculated by the ATO. Compulsory employer super guarantee contributions cannot be released under FHSS.
Our team at Hunter Galloway can help you buy a home in Brisbane.
You're not dealing with one person on their own. Your broker has a support team behind them, so the loan side stays simple while you focus on the property.
If you want to get started, give us a call on 1300 088 065 or book a free assessment online to see how we can help.
Note: Information checked against ATO, Housing Australia and Queensland Revenue Office sources in October 2026. It's general information, not financial or tax advice. Any home loan needs lender approval and checks of your documents.
