MyHome Scheme Tasmania: The Real Mechanics, the Real Friction, and How to Use It Effectively

The MyHome scheme sounds like a breakthrough for first home buyers who can service a mortgage but cannot save a 20% deposit. And in theory, it is. A 2% minimum deposit, with the Tasmanian Government co-purchasing alongside you, removes the deposit barrier that blocks most low-to-middle income buyers from homeownership.

But the reality of using MyHome in Tasmania's actual market — where blind bidding is common, where vendors are comparing your offer against mainland buyers with full deposits and 30-day settlements, and where the tripartite approval process between you, Bank of us, and Homes Tasmania can push settlement to 120 days — is much more complicated than the official brochures suggest.

This guide covers how MyHome actually works, who qualifies, what the property and income limits are, and the specific market friction that every prospective applicant needs to understand before making an offer.

What the MyHome Scheme Is

MyHome is Tasmania's shared equity home purchase program, administered by Homes Tasmania in partnership with Bank of us, which is the state government's banking institution. It replaced the former HomeShare scheme.

Under MyHome, you purchase a home with a minimum 2% deposit from your own savings. Homes Tasmania then co-purchases the property with you, contributing an equity stake as follows:

• For existing homes: Homes Tasmania contributes up to 30% of the purchase price, capped at a maximum of $150,000
• For new homes and house-and-land packages: Homes Tasmania contributes up to 40% of the purchase price, capped at $300,000

This government equity contribution is not a loan in the conventional sense — it does not accrue standard interest. However, you must buy out the government's equity share within 30 years, either incrementally while you own the property or fully when you sell.

The structure means your mortgage is for the remaining portion of the property value. If you are purchasing a $500,000 existing home and Homes Tasmania contributes 30% ($150,000), your mortgage is for the remaining 68% (the 30% equity plus your 2% deposit leaving 68% to finance). This produces a meaningfully smaller mortgage and lower ongoing repayments than a standard purchase at full price.

Who Qualifies: Income and Asset Limits

MyHome is targeted at buyers who genuinely need assistance, not buyers who simply prefer to retain cash. The eligibility criteria are strict.

Income limits for existing home purchases:

Income limits for new home purchases:

For both existing and new homes, the total financial assets of all applicants must not exceed $118,238. This asset cap includes savings, shares, and other liquid assets — but not the value of any vehicle under a certain threshold or personal property.

You must also meet all standard first home buyer eligibility criteria: you must be a natural person (not a company or trust), at least one applicant must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and neither applicant can have previously owned residential property anywhere in Australia.

Property Price Caps

The MyHome scheme operates within specific property price limits:

• Existing homes: Maximum purchase price of $750,000
• New homes and house-and-land packages: Maximum purchase price of $800,000 (increased from $750,000 effective November 2025)

These caps align with the current stamp duty exemption threshold for existing homes, which means most MyHome purchases will also benefit from the 100% stamp duty exemption if they settle before June 30, 2026. This combination — MyHome equity contribution plus zero stamp duty — can substantially reduce the total upfront capital required.

The Bank of Us Lending Requirement

MyHome is only available through Bank of us. You cannot use MyHome with a major bank, a non-bank lender, or any other institution. This is not merely administrative — it has real financial implications.

Bank of us is a smaller, state-government-backed bank with competitive but not necessarily the lowest mortgage rates in the market. Your interest rate and overall loan conditions will reflect what Bank of us offers. Before applying, you should get a comparison quote from other lenders for a standard purchase (without MyHome) to understand what you might be giving up in rate terms versus what you gain in the deposit contribution.

Your borrowing capacity through Bank of us is also assessed under their standard criteria. The MyHome equity contribution reduces the loan amount, but Bank of us still assesses your ability to service the remaining mortgage. If you are close to income limits, this serviceability test is what will determine whether you can proceed.

The 120-Day Settlement Problem

Here is what the official literature does not tell you: the MyHome approval process routinely takes 90 to 120 days to complete. This is not an aberration — it is structural. The tripartite approval process requires sign-off from you, Bank of us as lender, and Homes Tasmania as co-purchaser. Each institution has its own assessment process, and they proceed somewhat sequentially rather than in parallel.

In a property market where mainland investors and conventional buyers can offer 30 to 42 day settlements, a MyHome offer with a 120-day settlement condition is a significant competitive disadvantage. Vendors selling in high-demand suburbs actively compare offers. A slightly lower offer with a fast settlement is genuinely attractive to many sellers compared to a higher MyHome offer that requires them to carry the property for four months.

Community discussions on platforms like Reddit's r/tasmania reveal a recurring pattern: MyHome buyers feel forced to inflate their offer price to compensate vendors for the extended settlement period. This partially defeats the affordability purpose of the scheme. A buyer who bids $20,000 above what they otherwise would have offered, in order to make their MyHome timeline acceptable to the vendor, has transferred the savings back to the vendor rather than retaining them.

The practical response to this is to target properties where the vendor is less time-sensitive — executor sales, properties that have been on the market for an extended period, or new builds where the developer is selling multiple properties and is accustomed to longer settlement timelines.

How MyHome Interacts with the June 30 Stamp Duty Deadline

If you are using MyHome to purchase an existing home, you need to settle by June 30, 2026 to access the 100% stamp duty exemption. Given the 90 to 120 day approval process, this means your MyHome application needs to have been initiated several months before the deadline.

In practical terms: if you are reading this in late May 2026 and have not yet applied for MyHome, you almost certainly cannot use MyHome and also capture the stamp duty exemption on an existing home before June 30. The timelines do not work.

If you miss the June 30 deadline, you can still use MyHome after that date. You simply lose the stamp duty exemption on existing homes. For a new home purchase (where the FHOG applies rather than the full stamp duty exemption), the timing pressure is less acute because the FHOG deadline is tied to the transaction entry date, not settlement.

Buying Out the Government's Equity Share

The government's equity stake in your property accumulates proportionally to the property's value over time. If the property increases in value, the government's share increases in dollar terms — even though no additional money has changed hands.

For example: if you purchase a $500,000 home with a 30% government contribution ($150,000), and the property appreciates to $700,000 over five years, the government's 30% share is now worth $210,000. When you sell or refinance to buy out the share, you pay the current market value of the government's percentage, not the original dollar amount contributed.

This is the key financial mechanic to model carefully before entering MyHome. In a rising market, the government's equity stake appreciates alongside yours. The scheme is not a free gift — it is a genuine equity partnership with Homes Tasmania. Over the 30-year maximum term, if you never partially buy back the government's share, the total exit cost when selling could be substantially higher than the initial contribution if property values have risen significantly.

The Alternative: Using the Home Guarantee Scheme Instead

First home buyers who earn above the MyHome income caps, or who want full ownership from day one, should assess the federal First Home Guarantee as an alternative. This scheme allows purchase with a 5% deposit, with Housing Australia guaranteeing the mortgage up to 20% to eliminate LMI. Unlike MyHome, the First Home Guarantee does not give a third party an equity stake in your home.

Following 2025 reforms, the First Home Guarantee has removed income caps and uncapped the number of available places. In Tasmania, the property price cap is $700,000 in Hobart and recognized regional centres (including Launceston and Devonport), and $550,000 elsewhere.

For buyers who can save a 5% deposit and whose income exceeds MyHome thresholds, the Home Guarantee avoids the 120-day settlement complication entirely, giving you competitive settlement terms and full property ownership.

The MyHome scheme is genuinely valuable for the buyers it is designed for — but using it well requires understanding the mechanics that official materials underemphasise. The Tasmania First Home Buyer Guide covers the complete MyHome strategy, including scripts for communicating extended settlement terms to vendors, how to calculate your real exit cost from the equity partnership, and how to combine MyHome with other available assistance to minimize upfront capital requirements.

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