How To Save For A House Deposit Quickly & Smartly 💸

Saving for a house deposit isn’t just about hitting a dollar figure. It’s also about building the financial profile lenders trust and choosing where to keep your money while you wait. Beyond budgeting and cutting costs, understanding borrowing criteria, government schemes and the real trade-off between waiting and buying now can fast-track your path to home ownership.

In this guide, written by an expert mortgage broker in Brisbane, we tell you everything you need to know about how much to save for a house deposit.

This may sound too obvious but stay with us…

If you want to buy a home, you need a deposit, and for you to know how much deposit you need, you need to know what you will spend on that home.

In other words, deciding your purchase price is the first step in determining how much you need in savings.

As Tony Robbins says, setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.

When deciding your purchase price, it is a good idea to decide on a lower price and work your way up. This will allow you to have a smaller deposit and get into the market much faster. Follow these steps to determine your purchase price:

When choosing a purchase price, remember to set a realistic target. Look at whether or not you can afford the property. As we said above, it is a good idea to decide on a lower price and then work your way up from there.

Read More: Property market research | 12 steps to research a home. 

You might not know this, but you don’t need a 20% deposit when you buy a home. 

Plenty of first home buyers get in with 5 to 10%. Under the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme (it used to be called the Home Guarantee Scheme), eligible first home buyers can buy with a 5% deposit and pay no Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI). Since 1 October 2025 there are no income caps and no limit on places. The price caps are further down this page.

If you buy with under 20%, you'll usually pay LMI unless you qualify for a scheme, a lender's LMI waiver or a suitable guarantor loan. LMI can run into the thousands. The trade-off is simple. A smaller deposit gets you in sooner, but you borrow more and pay more interest over the life of the loan.

In my case, I bought my first home with the minimum deposit necessary, so I could get into the market faster than waiting to save up a 20% deposit. That’s why I decided to save an 8% deposit.

Read More: 5 First Home Buyer Myths & Mistakes Revealed 

Like anything in life, having a dream is good, but making it a reality through goal setting is key. In fact, your Deposit Goal is 10 times more important than anything else. Once you have decided on the deposit percentage (8, 10 or 20), it’s now time to set a deposit goal and work back from there.

Here’s the approach that worked best for me:

I wanted to buy my first home for $330k back in 2022 and needed to save an 8% deposit. My deposit goal would be $330,000 x 0.08 = $26,400.

On the other hand, if you wanted to buy a $550,000 house and save a 20% deposit.

Your deposit goal would be $550,000 x 0.20 = $110,000.

Read More: How much home can I afford?

Here there is good news and bad news.

The good news for Queenslanders is that first home buyers pay no stamp duty on an established home worth up to $700k, and the concession phases out between $700k and $800k. Buying a new home? There's a full concession at any price for contracts signed from 1 May 2025. For contracts signed from 1 August 2026, you generally need to be an Australian citizen or permanent resident to get these concessions. Other states run their own rules, so check yours before you budget.

The bad news is that you do still need to pay transfer fees and other government charges. You can quickly calculate what these look like by talking to your Mortgage Broker or using this calculator. 

The $872 government-fee figure in this worked example is an old allowance, not a current quote. Ask your solicitor for the fees on your purchase.

I'd price each cost rather than set aside a flat percentage. Get quotes for transfer and registration fees, your solicitor, building and pest inspections and bank fees. Add LMI if it applies to your loan. The worked example below uses a $3.3k allowance for buying costs. Replace that with your own quotes before setting your savings goal.

Read More: 16 Hidden Costs of Buying a Home

Now it’s time to put it all together.

Add the deposit goal to the stamp duty and other fees to determine your total saving goal!

Once you have that total, compare first home buyer loans before deciding how much of your savings to put into the deposit.

In my case, it would be $26,400 plus $3,300 to make a total savings goal of $29,700!

Now I have a total savings goal of $29,700 to get me into my first home!

Read More: Deposit calculator: How much deposit do I need for a home loan? 

A goal of $29,700 seems like a mammoth task.

As the saying goes, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

How do you save for a home? One dollar at a time.

Take your total Saving Goal and set a monthly Saving Target to make it much more achievable. Determine the number of months you want to have achieved your goal and then divide your saving goal by those months.

For example, if you want to have raised $29,700 in 12 months (1 year), then your saving goal would be $29,700 divided by 12 to give you a monthly saving goal of $2,475.

If this Monthly Saving Goal seems too high, consider giving yourself more time. So, rather than 12 months, you can make it 24 months.

Another alternative is to jump back to Step 1 and look at a cheaper property to reduce the deposit required.

If you prefer weekly savings targets, divide by the number of weeks left. The figures below are rounded up to the next dollar so you reach the $29,700 goal.

We find matching how you are paid to your savings goal works best. So if you are paid weekly, use the weekly savings goal. If you are paid monthly, use the monthly savings goal.

Read More: 13 Mistakes nearly all first home buyers make

This involves having your employer pay you directly to an account that is separate from your day-to-day account. So your money goes straightaway into your savings before you even get paid. After that, you transfer the money you have budgeted to use for living expenses into your day-to-day account. It’s really easy to do. These days, you can jump online and have a new account in minutes, thanks to a lot of online banks. If not, some banks let you split your pay between accounts.

A couple of years ago, I set up a House Savings account which was separate from my day-to-day account. I got my money paid straight from my pay into that account. In effect, I was quarantining my Monthly Savings Goal.

If you do that, you won’t even realise it’s gone, and you will keep living your life and spending (the remaining) money as you wish.

Read More: Barefoot Investor bank accounts explained.

This might sound redundant, considering Step 7, but it is extremely important that you remember this.

Keep your savings in a separate account from your spending account. This is because it is extremely difficult to keep spending and savings separate. 

I made that mistake when I was trying to buy a place. I put it all in one account and began to feel a little rich, forgetting that it was money I could not touch.

There are a few banks out there that have reward savings accounts. You put money in every month, and you lose the bonus interest if you take any out. It gives you a disincentive to take the money out, and as you continue to deposit, it grows.

Do whatever it takes to stop yourself from spending your savings.

100% is made up of a total of 1%’s. If you look at it that way, you will see the importance of saving up on the 1%’ers.

What does that look like?

We can definitely tell you it doesn’t look like eating two-minute noodles. But, instead of buying the super fancy $10 cheese from Woolies, you could buy the $5 one from ALDI. If you cut down like that a little bit, you might save $50 a week. That's about $217 a month, or $2.6k a year. You see how quickly it adds up?

You can cut back on so many things, like the brand of tomato sauce, jam or toilet paper.

Remember, It’s the 1%’ers that can really add up and snowball to help you save with that deposit super fast.

Read more: Positive credit reporting.

We have found that rent is the biggest expense for many of our clients. Rent can be 30% to 40% of your total income, so you need to find a way to cut down on this.

Here are a few ways you can cut on rental expenses:

Read more: Guarantor home loans: how to borrow 105% LVR.

Saving can be very daunting, especially if you are sitting there with a goal of $50,000.

But the fact is, if you want to buy a house, you have to save the deposit. You can’t run away from it.

So how do you make the journey a little more bearable? Once you hit a milestone, celebrate It! If your ultimate goal is $50,000, break it up into 10 bite-sized pieces of $5,000 and reward yourself every time you get to $5,000.

But don’t reward yourself financially for achieving your goal! One thing to avoid on your savings journey is to reward yourself with purchases. While it’s important to celebrate the Milestones, linking pleasure with spending can lead to problems down the road. Instead of buying yourself a gift, create an experience with a loved one.

Celebrating doesn’t need to cost you money. For example, in Brisbane, you can take the family out to South Bank for a swim. It doesn’t cost anything. Or head up to Mount Nebo or Mount Coot-tha for a picnic. That’s all very cost-effective.

Do it. It’s Awesome.

When lenders ask for genuine savings, they mean money you’ve built up yourself over time, not a last-minute gift or windfall. According to many lenders, this must be held or accumulated in your name for at least 3 months. 

Typical sources include:

Many lenders require genuine savings when your Loan-to-Value Ratio (LVR) is high. For example, if you borrow more than 90% (i.e., you have less than a 10% deposit), you often need to show at least 5% of the purchase price in genuine savings. 

Most banks want to see 3 months of bank statements to confirm genuine savings.
These statements help lenders verify:

Some lenders ask for 6 months of history, especially if your income is irregular or your LVR is high.

A strong credit score signals to lenders that you’re a low-risk borrower. Lenders also check:

Stable income and good credit help convince lenders that you can make regular mortgage repayments.

Gifts

Grants

Buying or building a new home in Queensland? Eligible first home buyers can get a $30k grant where the home and land together are worth less than $750k. It doesn't cover established homes. You must also meet the citizenship, previous ownership and residence rules, including moving in within 1 year and living there continuously for 6 months. Our Queensland first home owner grant page explains the steps, and Queensland Revenue Office sets out the eligibility rules.

Guarantors

If you know what lenders look for beyond your deposit, you can put in a stronger application. And at Hunter Galloway, we guide our clients through each of these steps, so they maximise their chances of approval.

Short of begging, borrowing or stealing, there are a few other ways you can approach buying a home by getting help from the people around you.

The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme, formerly the Home Guarantee Scheme, now suits far more first home buyers. The scheme allows first-home buyers to purchase a property with just a 5% deposit, while avoiding the extra cost of Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI).

Since 1 October 2025, the scheme has worked like this:

For example, the Brisbane cap rose from $700k to $1m on 1 October 2025. The Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast are also $1m, and the rest of Queensland is $700k. This higher cap opens up far more options across inner and middle-ring suburbs than were previously available.

Read more: First Home Guarantee Scheme

Not sure how much home you can afford or how to go about saving for a deposit? Or do you need an expert to walk you through the whole home buying process? Our team at Hunter Galloway is here to help you buy a home in Australia.

Unlike other mortgage brokers who are just one-person operations, we have an entire team of experts to help make your home loan journey as simple as possible.

If you want to get started, please get in touch here, and we can book a phone call information session or a face-to-face meeting at no cost to you. Give us a call on 1300 088 065 or  book a free assessment online  to see how we can help.