Boost to Buy: how Queensland's shared equity scheme works for a buyer

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Kooky

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Most help for first home buyers leaves the buyer owning the whole home and owing the whole loan. Shared equity is different. The government pays part of the purchase price and, in return, owns part of the home until the buyer pays it back. The loan is smaller, the deposit can be far smaller, and the price of that help is paid later, out of whatever the home turns out to be worth.

Queensland's version is called Boost to Buy. It is run by Queensland Treasury, assessed by the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority and delivered through an approved lender. This guide sets out how the scheme works for a buyer, using the rules on Queensland Treasury's Boost to Buy pages as last updated on 3 July 2026: what the State contributes, who can apply, which homes qualify, what the buyer must keep doing afterwards, and how the State's share is finally repaid.

Queensland Treasury, Boost to Buy pages, last updated 3 July 2026.

What shared equity means

In an ordinary purchase the price is covered by two amounts: the buyer's deposit and the bank's loan. Under Boost to Buy there is a third. Treasury describes the Queensland Government as a third party that contributes funds toward the purchase and charges no interest on them. In exchange the State holds an equity share in the home.

That share is a percentage, not a dollar debt. If the State pays 25 per cent of the price, it holds 25 per cent of the home's value, whatever that value becomes. Treasury says the share fluctuates with the value of the property and is repaid when the buyer sells or refinances, based on the property's current market value at that time. The buyer is the registered owner and lives in the home as any owner does; the State's interest is recorded through a participation agreement and repaid at the end.

The appeal is in the arithmetic of the loan. A buyer who could save only a small deposit would normally need to borrow most of the price and pay lenders mortgage insurance on top. With the State covering a quarter or more, the loan falls to roughly 70 per cent of the price. Unity Bank, the scheme's lender, lists the absence of lenders mortgage insurance as one of the features of its Boost to Buy loan.

How much the State puts in

The contribution depends on the kind of home. Treasury sets it at up to 30 per cent of the purchase price for a new home and up to 25 per cent for an existing home. The buyer needs a deposit of at least 2 per cent of the purchase price, and there is a floor under the two together: the buyer's deposit plus the State's contribution must equal at least 20 per cent of the price.

A buyer with more than the minimum can use it. Treasury notes that a larger deposit increases the buyer's own share proportionally, which means either a smaller loan or a smaller State share.

Treasury's own example, published when the scheme was expanded on 12 December 2025, is a $750,000 existing home. The table sets it beside the same price for a new home at the higher contribution rate.

The deposit has a condition attached. Treasury's eligibility page asks for a minimum 2 per cent deposit that demonstrates actual savings, and says the First Home Owner Grant does not count toward it. The State's contribution also does not pay for anything except the price. Treasury lists conveyancing, legal fees, building inspections and transfer duty as costs the buyer covers alone. It adds that a buyer may separately qualify for a transfer duty concession and for the First Home Owner Grant, each applied for in its own right through the Queensland Revenue Office.

Who can apply

Boost to Buy is for first home buyers only. Treasury's eligibility page, as updated on 3 July 2026, sets these conditions for the people applying:

• an Australian citizen or permanent resident, aged 18 or over
• a first home buyer, which here means that neither the applicant nor their spouse owns or has owned property in Australia
• an individual, not a company or a trustee
• intending to live in the home as an owner-occupier and to be its registered owner
• holding the minimum 2 per cent deposit from genuine savings.

Then comes the income test. For the 2026 taxable year the limit is $155,000 a year for a single adult, and $232,000 for two adults applying together, with or without dependants. A single adult with one or more dependants is also assessed against $232,000. When the scheme was expanded in December 2025 the limits were $150,000 and $225,000; Treasury says the thresholds are indexed by the wage price index, which accounts for the rise.

One exclusion catches buyers who are comparing schemes. An applicant cannot be receiving assistance from a Commonwealth home-buyer guarantee, from another shared equity scheme or from a state or territory government loan. In practice that means Boost to Buy cannot be stacked on the Australian Government's 5% Deposit Scheme or its Help to Buy shared equity scheme. A buyer picks one route.

Which homes qualify

The home must be in Queensland and cost no more than $1 million. It can be existing or newly built, and Treasury lists houses, townhouses, units and apartments as eligible. It must be a finished dwelling: the page requires a Certificate of Occupancy or a Final Inspection Certificate.

Three kinds of purchase are ruled out. Off-the-plan purchases are ineligible, as is vacant land. So is any purchase at auction.

There is also a geographic rule that is easy to overlook. Places in the scheme are divided between South East Queensland and regional Queensland, and an applicant is approved for one or the other. Treasury says the property must be bought within the region initially selected. A buyer approved for a regional place cannot use it in Brisbane, and the reverse.

Places, regions and the lender

Boost to Buy is not open-ended. Treasury describes it as a $330 million scheme, a figure it reached when funding was doubled in December 2025, expected to help up to 2,000 first home buyers. Half of all places are reserved for regional Queensland.

The places have been released in rounds. Applications opened for 500 initial places in December 2025, according to Treasury's announcement of 12 December. Round two opened on 23 January 2026 with a further 500 places, half of them reserved for regional Queensland. In a ministerial statement on 23 June 2026, the Treasurer and Minister for Home Ownership, David Janetzki, said more than 100 participants had moved into their first homes through the scheme.

For the purposes of the split, South East Queensland takes in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan and Beaudesert, Moreton Bay and the Sunshine Coast. Everywhere else is regional.

A buyer does not apply to the government. The application runs through an approved lender, and Treasury's how-to-apply page says that at present only Unity Bank participates. When the scheme was expanded Treasury said additional lenders were expected to join in early 2026; the July 2026 pages still list one. Appointments with the lender are allocated according to whether the buyer intends to purchase in South East Queensland or in regional Queensland, and Treasury says applications are handled on a first-come, first-served basis. Availability therefore depends on when a buyer asks and for which region.

From appointment to settlement

Treasury sets the process out in four stages. For a buyer, five moments matter, because two deadlines sit inside them.

The six months is firm. Treasury says a buyer who has not signed a contract in that time must reapply. The three days for handing over the contract is short, and it is the reason the contract has to carry the finance clause and settlement period described above: the scheme's approval happens after the contract is signed, not before.

Provisional approval tells a buyer two things at once: that the lender is prepared to lend, and that the State is prepared to contribute. It does not fix the contribution in dollars. That figure appears in the final approval letter, once there is an actual price.

Living in the home: the ongoing rules

A shared equity purchase comes with a participation agreement, and the obligations in it last as long as the State holds a share. Treasury's list is long, but it falls into four groups.

The home stays the buyer's home. It must remain the principal place of residence. Leaving it vacant for more than three consecutive months needs approval. The whole property cannot be rented out, though Treasury says a roommate or housemate arrangement is permitted. Moving out triggers immediate repayment of the State's share in full.

The buyer stays a one-home owner. Participants cannot acquire additional property. Buying an investment property, like moving out, requires the State's equity to be repaid in full at once. The buyer or buyers must remain the sole registered owners.

The property is looked after. The home must be maintained and insured, and council rates, utilities and any body corporate fees paid on time.

The loan stays put. The home loan cannot be increased, except to repay the State's equity, and it cannot be refinanced with a lender outside the scheme's approved lenders.

Participants must also tell the scheme straight away when their circumstances change, and their eligibility is reviewed periodically.

Income is reviewed every year, and here the rule is more forgiving than at entry. A pay rise does not end participation. Treasury says that if a participant's income exceeds the threshold by 25 per cent or more for two consecutive years, a repayment becomes mandatory: the participant must reduce the State's equity by at least 5 per cent. On the 2026 figures, 25 per cent above the single threshold of $155,000 is $193,750, and 25 per cent above the $232,000 threshold is $290,000.

Renovations deserve a paragraph of their own. Treasury states that the Queensland Government will not cover any costs for renovations, extensions or improvements, yet an increase in the property's value from those works benefits the State's equity share. Because the loan cannot be increased to fund them, the money has to come from savings. Treasury's own suggestion is to repay the State's share before undertaking major work.

Buying back the State's share

There is no schedule of repayments. A participant can leave the State's share untouched until the home is sold, or buy it back in steps when money allows. Treasury sets two rules for voluntary repayments. Each one must either reduce the State's share by at least 5 per cent of the property's current market value or pay the share off completely. And the share cannot be paid out in full within the first two years from settlement, which matches the scheme's minimum tenure: a participant must keep the home as their principal residence for at least two years before exiting through a sale or a refinance.

The calculation is done on today's value, not the purchase price. Treasury's method is to divide the repayment by the property's current market value and subtract the resulting percentage from the State's share.

A worked example, with illustrative figures. A buyer purchased an existing home for $750,000 with the State holding 25 per cent. Some years later the home is valued at $850,000 and the buyer has $42,500 to put toward the share. Dividing $42,500 by $850,000 gives 5 per cent, so the State's share falls from 25 per cent to 20 per cent. Had the buyer made the same step at the purchase value, 5 per cent would have cost $37,500. The difference of $5,000 is the State's portion of the growth on that slice.

The value used has to be established properly. Treasury accepts a valuation from the approved lender where the buyer is refinancing, or from an independent valuer registered with the Valuers Registration Board of Queensland. It must be a short form valuation that includes a physical inspection of the property.

What happens when the home is sold

A sale ends the arrangement. Treasury sets the order in which the proceeds are paid: first the home loan lender, second the Queensland Government's equity share, third any other legal claimants, and last the participant, who keeps what remains.

Treasury's example uses round numbers. A home bought for $1,000,000 with a 25 per cent State share is sold for $1,100,000. The State's contribution was $250,000. Its 25 per cent of the $100,000 gain is $25,000, so the State receives $275,000. The owner's 75 per cent of the home is worth $825,000, out of which the remaining loan is repaid.

Applied to the smaller purchase used earlier, with illustrative figures: the $750,000 home, still with a 25 per cent State share, sells for $850,000. The State receives 25 per cent of $850,000, which is $212,500, or $25,000 more than the $187,500 it contributed. The owner's share of the sale is $637,500, against an original loan of $547,500 that will have been reduced by whatever principal was repaid in the meantime.

A sale within the first two years is not an ordinary exit, because of the minimum tenure. A participant who has to sell early needs to speak with the lender and the scheme before listing the home.

Weighing it against the other routes

Boost to Buy sits beside several other forms of help, and it differs from them in kind.

The First Home Owner Grant is money that is not repaid, but it applies to new homes only. The transfer duty concessions reduce a cost at settlement. Neither changes the size of the loan much. The Australian Government's 5% Deposit Scheme does lower the deposit hurdle, by guaranteeing part of the loan so that no lenders mortgage insurance is charged, but the buyer still borrows up to 95 per cent of the price and services all of it.

Shared equity changes the loan itself. In the $750,000 example the buyer borrows $547,500. With a 5 per cent deposit and no State share, the same buyer would borrow $712,500. The difference of $165,000 is debt the buyer does not carry or pay interest on. What the buyer gives up is a quarter of any growth in the home's value, plus a degree of freedom: no renting the home out, no second property, no auction purchases, no change of lender outside the panel, and a set of conditions to keep meeting.

Which matters more depends on the buyer. Someone whose difficulty is the size of the repayments has more to gain from a smaller loan than from a smaller deposit. Someone who expects to move for work within a couple of years, or to keep the home later as a rental, will find the conditions tighter. The scheme's income limits, its price cap, the regional split of places and the single approved lender narrow the field further.

Queensland Treasury publishes an eligibility checker with the scheme pages, and the approved lender assesses both the loan and the scheme criteria at the first appointment. The participation agreement is a legal document with long-lasting effects on what the owner can do with the home, and it is worth having it explained by a solicitor or conveyancer before signing.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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