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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Most of what is written for first home buyers in Queensland is written with Brisbane in mind. The examples use Brisbane prices, and the question asked is whether a scheme reaches far enough up the capital's market. For a buyer in Mackay, Bundaberg, Gladstone or Mount Isa the question runs the other way round. Prices are lower, so the caps bite less often, but some of the rules change at the edge of the south-east, and they do not all change in the same place.
Three things are different for a regional buyer. The two federal schemes apply a lower price cap. The State's shared equity scheme sets aside half its places. And the Queensland Government runs a home loan of its own, with a 2 per cent deposit, whose income limit is higher in a list of regional council areas until the end of October 2026.
This guide goes through each of them, using the rules published by the Australian Government's First Home Buyers website, Queensland Treasury, the Queensland Revenue Office and the Queensland Government's housing pages. It starts with a problem of vocabulary, because "regional Queensland" means something different to each scheme.
First Home Buyers website; Queensland Treasury, Boost to Buy; Queensland Government, Queensland Housing Finance Loan.
Three different maps of "regional"
There is no single boundary between the south-east and the rest of the state. Each scheme draws its own.
The federal schemes, the 5% Deposit Scheme and Help to Buy, give a higher price cap to the capital city and to named regional centres. The First Home Buyers website names Queensland's regional centres as the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. Everything else is "rest of state". The cap for a particular address is set by postcode and found through the website's lookup tool.
Related read20,125 Queensland first buyers used the 5% Deposit Scheme in a yearBoost to Buy, the State's shared equity scheme, divides its places between South East Queensland and regional Queensland. Queensland Treasury defines the south-east for this purpose as Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan and Beaudesert, Moreton Bay and the Sunshine Coast. Everywhere else is regional.
The Queensland Housing Finance Loan uses a third list. Its higher income limit applies in what the Queensland Government's housing pages call regional trial areas, a list of more than 40 local government areas that includes Gladstone, Gympie, Whitsunday, Mount Isa, Isaac, Central Highlands, the Southern Downs and the Western Downs.
The maps overlap without matching. The Gold Coast is a regional centre for the federal caps and part of the south-east for Boost to Buy. Toowoomba is regional for Boost to Buy and under the lower federal cap. The Lockyer Valley and Somerset council areas, west of Brisbane, are regional for Boost to Buy and on the State loan's trial list, although PropTrack's suburb analysis lists places in both under Greater Brisbane.
| Scheme | Treated as south-east or capital | Effect outside it |
|---|---|---|
| 5% Deposit Scheme | Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast | Price cap falls from $1,000,000 to $700,000 |
| Help to Buy | Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast | Price cap falls from $1,000,000 to $700,000 |
| Boost to Buy | Brisbane, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan and Beaudesert, Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast | Half of all places reserved; same $1,000,000 cap |
| Queensland Housing Finance Loan | Areas not on the regional trial list | Income limit rises from $141,000 to $201,000 |
First Home Buyers website; Queensland Treasury; Queensland Government housing pages.
The practical lesson is to check the address against each scheme separately, and not to assume that being regional for one makes a home regional for another.
The $700,000 line
The federal 5% Deposit Scheme lets a first buyer purchase with a 5 per cent deposit and no lenders mortgage insurance, with no income limit and no cap on places. In Queensland outside Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, the home must cost no more than $700,000.
That cap was $550,000 until the scheme was expanded on 1 October 2025, according to Housing Australia's settings for the earlier version. The rise of $150,000 brought a much larger part of the regional market inside the scheme.
Related readThe 5% Deposit Scheme in Queensland: price caps, rules and how to applyHelp to Buy, the federal shared equity scheme, uses the same two figures. The Commonwealth pays up to 30 per cent of the price of an existing home or up to 40 per cent of a new one, the buyer needs a 2 per cent deposit, and the home must be at or under $700,000 in regional Queensland. It adds an income test: a taxable income of up to $103,000 for a single applicant and $165,000 for joint applicants or a single parent.
Both caps are absolute. The First Home Buyers website says Housing Australia cannot approve a Help to Buy application above the cap, and for the 5% Deposit Scheme it says both the purchase price and the lender's valuation must be at or under it. A buyer cannot pay the difference from savings and stay in the scheme.
At the cap, a 5 per cent deposit is $35,000 and a 2 per cent deposit is $14,000.
What sits under the cap
Whether $700,000 is generous depends on the town. PropTrack's analysis of first-home buyer suburbs, published on 12 April 2026 and using median prices for the twelve months to November 2025, included several regional Queensland locations.
PropTrack, "The first-home buyer suburbs to watch in 2026", 12 April 2026, for suburb medians; First Home Buyers website for the cap.
In each of those places the median is under the cap, so at least half the homes of that type sold in the period were within reach of the federal schemes on price. The margin varies. A median house in Mackay sat $142,000 below the cap; a median unit in central Cairns was $27,000 below it.
An earlier piece of lender research points the same way. NAB, in figures reported by Broker News on 10 October 2025, listed ten postcodes around the country where first buyers could purchase for under $650,000, and three were in Queensland: the Toowoomba area, Mackay, and Gladstone with Tannum Sands.
Related readHelp to Buy opens 10,000 new places, with Queensland third for demandA median is the middle of a market, not its upper half. Family houses in the better-regarded suburbs of the larger regional cities can be priced above $700,000, and a buyer looking there meets the cap in a way the median does not show.
Boost to Buy: reserved places and a higher cap
Queensland's own shared equity scheme treats the regions more favourably than the federal ones in two respects.
The first is the cap. Boost to Buy accepts homes up to $1,000,000 anywhere in Queensland. A regional buyer looking at a $780,000 house is over the cap for both federal schemes and within it for the State's.
The second is the reservation. Queensland Treasury describes Boost to Buy as a $330 million scheme expected to help up to 2,000 first home buyers, and says half of all places are reserved for regional Queensland. Places have been released in rounds: 500 in December 2025 and a further 500 from 23 January 2026, half of each round's places for the regions. Because most Queenslanders live in the south-east, an even split gives a regional applicant better odds of finding a place open.
The other terms are the same everywhere. The State contributes up to 25 per cent of the price of an existing home or up to 30 per cent of a new one, the buyer needs a deposit of at least 2 per cent from their own savings, and the income limit for the 2026 taxable year is $155,000 for a single adult and $232,000 for two adults or a single adult with dependants. The home must be a completed dwelling. Vacant land, off-the-plan purchases and auction purchases are excluded.
Related readHelp to Buy: the federal shared equity scheme and its Queensland capsA regional place has to be used on a regional home
Queensland Treasury says the property must be bought in the region the applicant was approved for. A buyer who takes a regional place cannot use it in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay or the Sunshine Coast, and a south-east place cannot be used in the regions.
Applications go through one lender, Unity Bank, and appointments are allocated by region.
The State's own low-deposit loan
The least known option is a home loan from the State itself. The Queensland Housing Finance Loan is described on the Queensland Government's housing pages, and its terms are unlike a bank's.
The deposit is a minimum of 2 per cent of the purchase price. No lenders mortgage insurance is required. There is no maximum loan amount; what limits the loan is the applicant's income, with repayments set at up to 35 per cent of gross monthly household income. The term is up to 30 years, or until the borrower turns 75. The interest rate can be variable or fixed for three years, and the page lists an application fee of $894.22.
It is income tested. In most of the state, gross household income can be no more than $141,000 a year. In the regional trial areas the limit is $201,000. The page says the regional trial closes on 31 October 2026.
The other conditions are:
- every applicant is at least 18, lives in Queensland, and is an Australian citizen or permanent resident
- every owner of the home is an applicant, and a married or partnered applicant applies with their partner
- the applicants will live in the home, and do not own or part-own another property
- employment has been continuous: at least one year if permanent, two if casual, three if self-employed
- there is a good credit history, a record of regular saving and no significant debts.
The loan can be used to buy an established house, unit, townhouse or duplex, or to build a house. The page does not limit it to people who have never owned a home; the test is that the applicant owns no other property.
The process starts with an online eligibility checker, followed by a phone call with the department to confirm eligibility, after which the applicant has three months to send in the application forms.
For a regional household on a middle income, the trial is the notable feature. A couple earning $180,000 between them is above the standard limit of $141,000 and inside the trial limit of $201,000. The same couple would be over the Help to Buy income limit and under Boost to Buy's. Anyone considering the loan on the strength of the higher limit needs to check the list of council areas on the Queensland Government's page, and the closing date.
Related readLenders mortgage insurance, and how a guarantee replaces itOne regional home, four routes
The table applies four routes to the same purchase: an existing house in a regional city at $560,000, about the median PropTrack recorded for Mackay. The figures are illustrative and assume the minimum deposit and the maximum government share in each case.
| Route | Buyer's deposit | Government share | Loan |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5% Deposit Scheme | $28,000 (5%) | None | $532,000 |
| Help to Buy | $11,200 (2%) | $168,000 (30%) | $380,800 |
| Boost to Buy | $11,200 (2%) | $140,000 (25%) | $408,800 |
| Queensland Housing Finance Loan | $11,200 (2%) | None | $548,800 |
Illustrative figures computed from each scheme's published deposit and contribution rates. Purchase costs are extra, and each route has its own income and eligibility tests.
The four fall into two pairs. The guarantee and the State loan leave the buyer owning the whole home and owing almost all of its price: $532,000 and $548,800. The two shared equity schemes cut the loan to around $400,000 and take a share of the home's future value in return.
On transfer duty the four are identical. A first buyer who meets the Queensland Revenue Office's conditions pays no duty on an existing home at $560,000, whichever route funds it.
The routes cannot be freely mixed. Boost to Buy excludes anyone receiving a Commonwealth guarantee, another shared equity scheme or a State government loan, and Help to Buy excludes State loans, guarantees and shared equity. A regional buyer is choosing one of the four.
The grant and duty: same rules, further reach
The two measures run by the Queensland Revenue Office make no distinction between the regions and the capital. The First Home Owner Grant is $30,000 on a new home valued under $750,000, wherever it is built. The first home duty concessions remove duty on a new home at any price and on an existing home up to $700,000, with a reduced amount up to $800,000.
Identical rules produce different results at different price levels. In Brisbane, a new home under $750,000 generally means a unit, a townhouse or a house and land package on the outer edge. In a regional city the same limit takes in a much wider range of new houses. The grant, in effect, is worth more as a share of the price the further prices fall: $30,000 is 4 per cent of a $750,000 home and 6 per cent of a $500,000 one.
Related readPalm Island rent-to-buy scheme opens to its first ten householdsTwo coincidences help a regional buyer. The $700,000 at which the existing-home duty concession starts to taper is the same figure as the federal regional cap, so any existing home that qualifies for the 5% Deposit Scheme in regional Queensland is also free of duty for an eligible first buyer. And a new home under $700,000 in the regions can attract the grant, nil duty and the 5 per cent deposit together.
The gap is the band between $700,001 and $749,999 for a new home. There the grant and the duty relief still apply, but the federal guarantee does not, and the buyer needs a conventional deposit, a family guarantee, a place in Boost to Buy or mortgage insurance.
Lenders and brokers at a distance
Access is partly a matter of who will write the loan. The 5% Deposit Scheme is offered by more than 30 lenders, according to the First Home Buyers website, so most regional buyers can use their own bank or a broker.
The shared equity schemes have short panels. Boost to Buy has one lender. Help to Buy had two until 27 July 2026, when Teachers Mutual Bank became the third, and The Adviser reported that its Help to Buy loans would be available through mortgage brokers from 6 October 2026. Before that date Bank Australia was the only panel lender a broker could use, Broker Daily reported on 1 July.
That matters more in a regional town than in a capital. Where the panel lenders have no branch, a broker or a phone and online application is the way in, and a scheme a broker cannot write is harder to reach.
Related readQueensland Budget keeps the $30,000 first home grant for four more yearsThe State loan is applied for directly with the department, by phone and by form, which makes distance irrelevant.
Communities on trust land
One part of regional Queensland has rules of its own. In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities where land is held in trust, a home is bought under a 99-year home ownership lease from the trustee. The Queensland Government's housing pages list the communities where sale prices for social housing have been agreed, among them Yarrabah, Woorabinda, Kowanyama, Lockhart River and Palm Island.
On Palm Island a rent-to-buy scheme opened to applications on 13 July 2026, according to a statement by the Minister for Housing and Public Works. It began with ten households, and payments set at rent level lead to a 99-year lease after about ten years.
Questions for a regional buyer
The differences described here reduce to a short list a regional buyer can work through before looking at homes.
- Which side of each boundary is the address on: the federal cap by postcode, the Boost to Buy region, and the State loan's trial list?
- Is the price at or under $700,000? If not, the federal schemes are out and Boost to Buy's $1,000,000 cap is the one that counts.
- Is the home new and under $750,000, so that the grant applies?
- Where does household income sit against $103,000 and $165,000 for Help to Buy, $141,000 or $201,000 for the State loan, and $155,000 and $232,000 for Boost to Buy?
- Is the aim to own the whole home with a larger loan, or most of it with a smaller one?
- Which lenders offer the chosen scheme, and can a local broker write it?
Regional buyers have, on paper, more routes than buyers in the capital: the same grant and duty relief, the same federal schemes at a cap that covers the median in the places listed above, a reserved half of the State's shared equity places and a State loan with a raised income limit until 31 October. The First Home Buyers website, Queensland Treasury, the Queensland Revenue Office and the Queensland Government's housing pages each publish an eligibility checker or a number to call. They are the places to confirm how a particular address and a particular income fit, since a buyer on the wrong side of one boundary may be on the right side of another.
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.
