First Home Guarantee for Permanent Residents and Mixed-Citizenship Couples

By Andrew Paterson

If you’ve recently received your permanent residency, the First Home Guarantee is now open to you. Buy with a 5% deposit and skip Lenders Mortgage Insurance entirely. That alone saves most buyers tens of thousands of dollars.

If you’re buying with a partner who’s still on a temporary visa, it gets more complicated. One partner has permanent status, the other is waiting on a partner visa and the couple assumes they need to put everything on hold.

Sometimes they do. But often there’s a workable path, and the difference comes down to borrowing power and which part of the Geelong market is realistic on one income versus two.

Who qualifies and the visa types that don’t

Housing Australia requires all applicants to be Australian citizens or permanent residents at the time you sign your home loan agreement with your participating lender. Not when you start looking, not when you get pre-approved. At the point you sign.

This is where temporary visa holders get caught out. You’re not eligible if you hold:

• Subclass 820 partner visas (the temporary stage before the 801 permanent partner visa)
• 482 skilled worker visas
• Bridging visas

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been living in Australia or how stable your employment is. If your visa isn’t permanent, you can’t be on a First Home Guarantee application.

Permanent residents have only been eligible since July 2023. Before that, the scheme was limited to Australian citizens.

If you applied and were turned away a few years ago because of PR status, it’s worth checking again.

Citizenship or PR status is just one part of the eligibility criteria. You also need to meet the 10-year property ownership rule, have a genuine 5% deposit and satisfy your lender’s borrowing requirements.

Our First Home Guarantee guide covers the full eligibility criteria. You can also use the government’s eligibility checker for a quick initial assessment.

When one partner qualifies and the other doesn’t

This is where most of the complexity sits. Both people on the loan need to meet the eligibility criteria individually, so if one partner holds a temporary visa, the couple can’t apply jointly.

The only pathway is for the qualifying partner to apply as a sole applicant. One name, one income on the loan.

That directly affects how much you can borrow. A couple earning $150,000 combined can borrow considerably more than an individual earning $100,000, and that gap determines what you can realistically buy.

Use our borrowing power calculator to see what the difference looks like for your situation.

There is an upside to the sole-applicant pathway. Because the temporary visa holder isn’t on the title, you avoid Victoria’s 8% foreign purchaser surcharge and don’t need the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval.

Both of those apply when a temporary visa holder is named on the property title, so the scheme sidesteps them entirely.

One question we get often: what if my partner’s PR comes through during the process?

The eligibility check happens at the time you sign the home loan agreement, not at pre-approval. So if your partner receives their permanent visa before that point, they could potentially be added to the application and you could apply jointly.

The timing is tight and not something to bank on, but it’s worth discussing with your broker if PR is expected soon.

The lender income question

Even outside the scheme’s eligibility rules, most lenders won’t count a temporary visa holder’s income when assessing how much you can borrow.

This is a separate issue from whether you qualify for the First Home Guarantee, and it affects regular home loans too.

The reasoning is straightforward from the lender’s perspective: if the temporary visa holder’s application for permanent residency is declined, they may need to leave Australia and would no longer be in a position to help repay the loan.

Some lenders are more flexible than others. A few will consider the temporary visa holder’s income if:

• You’re married or have been in a de facto relationship for over two years
• You have children together
• The citizen or PR partner is the main income earner
• The relationship is well established with strong documentation

CBA tends to be more accommodating on this than most, though policies vary and change.

It’s worth having a broker check which lenders will work with your specific circumstances rather than assuming one approach fits all.

The waiting question: buy now or wait for PR?

The subclass 820/801 partner visa pathway typically takes two to three years from application to permanent residency (sometimes faster if you’ve been together 3+ years at the time of application, but there’s no guaranteed timeline).

So the question becomes: wait for PR so both incomes count and you can apply jointly, or buy now on one income with reduced borrowing power?

There’s no universally right answer. Waiting means potentially years of renting while property prices move. Buying now means a smaller loan and possibly a different type of property than you’d planned.

That doesn’t put homeownership out of reach, but it changes what’s realistic. Buying sooner means building equity rather than paying rent. If the numbers only work with both incomes, waiting for PR might be the more practical path.

If you’re a New Zealand citizen

NZ citizens get treated differently to other temporary visa holders, and it works in your favour.

If you’re on a Special Category Visa (subclass 444), you’re treated as a permanent resident for the 5% Deposit Scheme. This was confirmed from July 2024.

You’re also generally exempt from Victoria’s foreign purchaser surcharge and don’t need FIRB approval for residential property.

It’s still worth verifying your status through a VEVO check with your participating lender before you apply, as not all 444 visa situations are identical.

If the First Home Guarantee doesn’t fit

Depending on your visa situation and borrowing power, other pathways might work better.

Help to Buy requires just a 2% deposit and the government contributes up to 40% of the purchase price, which brings your loan size and repayments down substantially.

The catch: it requires Australian citizenship, not just permanent residency. If you’re a PR holder, this one isn’t available to you yet.

A guarantor loan works if a family member with property in Australia is willing to use it as additional security.

And standard Lenders Mortgage Insurance remains an option for anyone who can afford the premium. It means a larger upfront cost, but no restrictions on which lender you use.

For a complete overview of what’s available, see our guide to Geelong grants and schemes.

Want to talk it through?

Visa status, lender policies and borrowing power all interact differently depending on your circumstances.

A 15-minute chat will tell you where you stand, what your realistic options are and whether buying now or waiting makes more sense for your situation.

No cost, no pressure, no paperwork until you’re ready.

Schedule a free chat or call us on (03) 5222 7453.