Interest rate announcement – February 2020
This month the RBA have left the cash rate on hold at 0.75% and continue to monitor the economy closely. The inflation rate is currently 1.7% which is below the RBA’s ideal range of between 2% and 3%.

The First Home Loan Deposit Scheme is an Australian Government initiative to support eligible first home buyers purchase a home sooner. It does this by providing a guarantee that will allow eligible first home buyers to purchase a home with a deposit of as little as 5 per cent. The Scheme will support up to 10,000 loans each financial year through participating lenders.

The two major bank participating lenders, the National Australia Bank (NAB) and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), will offer guaranteed loans from the Scheme’s commencement date of 1 January 2020.

The 25 non-major lenders began offering guaranteed loans from 1 February 2020 and have received 50 per cent of the initial 10,000 guarantees allocated in the current financial year.

The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) has developed a simple fact sheet with key information about the Scheme which can be downloaded here.

Scheme eligibility checklists

There are a range of criteria for the Scheme that cover borrower, loan and property eligibility. NHFIC has developed an online interactive tool to help first home buyers find out whether they meet the Scheme’s eligibility criteria. The tool is available on the NHFIC website.

Property price thresholds

To ensure the Scheme meets the Australian Government’s objective that it is only available for the purchase of a modest home, or the purchase of land and construction of a modest home, they have set maximum property price thresholds under the Scheme that apply in capital cities, large regional centres and regional areas.

NHFIC has developed a tool to help first home buyers find out the property price threshold for the suburb in which they are looking to purchase a property.

Users can simply enter the postcode or suburb of the property on NHFIC’s calculator to display the relevant property price threshold.

How Harvest Property Loans can help First Home Buyers apply for a loan under the Scheme?

The following process applies to apply for a guarantee under the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme:

  1. Once we select and product and participating lender with you, Harvest will enquire to reserve a place with the participating lender on your behalf.
  2. The lender will then log onto the scheme portal to see if a place is available.
  3. If available, the lender will reserve the place of your behalf.
  4. The place can be held for up to 10 days. During this time the lender will need to provide you with finance pre-approval after which the lender will update the scheme portal to secure a “pre-approved place”.
  5. The pre-approved place can be held for up to 90 days to enable your to search for a property with the assurance that you have approval for both the loan and the scheme.
  6. Upon signing a contract of sale, you and the lender will have an additional 30 days to finalise the required documentation to apply to the NHFIC for a Guarantee Certificate.
  7. When you have been issued with a Guarantee Certificate, the lender will have 100 days to update the NHFIC portal with details of you loan settlement.

Spaces in the scheme are limited and filling up fast, so if you would like more information, please contact us on 02 (8908 4300) or send us an email to loans@harvestgroup.com.au

Our Current Best Interest Rates

The best home loan rates we currently have available:

  • Variable rate of 2.80% pa (comparison rate: 3.29% pa)
  • 1 year fixed rate of 2.85% pa (comparison rate: 3.35% pa)
  • 2 year fixed rate of 2.79% pa (comparison rate: 3.23% pa)
  • 3 year fixed rate of 2.79% pa (comparison rate: 3.23% pa)
  • 5 year fixed rate of 2.85% pa (comparison rate: 3.35% pa)

Assumptions: <$400,000 loan, owner-occupied purchase, principle & interest, LVR < 80%.