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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →The federal Help to Buy scheme has its first new lender since it opened. Teachers Mutual Bank Limited began offering Help to Buy loans to its members on Monday 27 July 2026, The Adviser, Broker News and MPA all reported that day. It joins the Commonwealth Bank and Bank Australia, the only two lenders on the panel since applications opened on 5 December 2025.
For now the new lender takes applications directly. Mortgage brokers will be able to write its Help to Buy loans from 6 October 2026, according to The Adviser and Broker News. That date matters in Queensland, where Housing Australia ranks demand for the scheme third among the states and where, outside the capital, a broker is often the way a first buyer reaches a lender at all.
The Adviser, Broker News and MPA, 27 July 2026.
Who the new lender is
Teachers Mutual Bank Limited is a customer-owned bank that trades under several names. The Adviser lists four: Teachers Mutual Bank, Health Professionals Bank, UniBank and Firefighters Mutual Bank. MPA reported that the group has approximately 280,000 members and $14.2 billion in assets, and that it completed an integration with Australian Mutual Bank on 1 May 2026. It already takes part in the Australian Government's 5% Deposit Scheme.
The brand names say who the bank was built for: people who work in schools, hospitals, universities and fire services. That is how Housing Australia framed the announcement. Its chief executive, Scott Langford, told The Adviser the bank's participation would "provide additional opportunities for key workers and other eligible Australians."
Greg Johnson, the bank's chief customer officer, put it from the member's side in comments reported by Broker News: "This program provides another pathway for our members to buy a home sooner."
Related readBuilding a first home in Queensland: land, grant and progress paymentsWhy a third name on the panel matters
Help to Buy cannot be applied for at Housing Australia. A buyer goes to a participating lender, which assesses the loan and lodges the application. The size of the panel therefore sets how many doors there are.
Until this week there were two. Housing Australia said when the scheme launched in December that more lenders were expected to join during 2026, and seven months passed before the first did. Broker Daily noted on 1 July, when the scheme's second year of places opened, that of the original pair only Bank Australia could be reached through a mortgage broker.
| Lender | On the panel since | Through a broker |
|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Bank | 5 December 2025 | No |
| Bank Australia | 5 December 2025 | Yes |
| Teachers Mutual Bank | 27 July 2026 | From 6 October 2026 |
Housing Australia launch announcements; Broker Daily, 1 July 2026, for broker access to the first two lenders; The Adviser and Broker News, 27 July 2026.
A longer panel does not change the rules of the scheme, the number of places or the price caps. It changes who can practically use them. A lender applies its own credit policy on top of the scheme's conditions, so two buyers with the same income can get different answers from different banks. Each added lender is another assessment a borrower can ask for.
The ten-week wait for brokers
The staged start is deliberate. Mr Johnson told The Adviser that opening to members first would ensure that eligibility, application processes and the bank's dealings with Housing Australia were "well bedded in before opening to brokers."
MPA described the broker rollout as scheduled for early October; The Adviser and Broker News both give the date as 6 October. From then, two of the three panel lenders will be available through the broker channel.
For buyers in regional Queensland that is the more important of the two dates. A shared equity loan is an unusual product. The lender has to coordinate with Housing Australia, the Commonwealth takes a share of the home, and the paperwork includes a participation agreement as well as a mortgage. A broker who has written one is useful to a buyer in a town where the panel lenders have no branch.
Related readStacking the grant, duty relief and a 5% deposit on one Queensland homeWhat the scheme offers, in Queensland terms
The design is unchanged by the announcement. Under Help to Buy 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, and holds a matching share of the property. The buyer needs a deposit of at least 2 per cent. Broker News restated the income limits that took effect on 1 July: a taxable income of up to $103,000 for a single applicant, and $165,000 for joint applicants. There are 10,000 places a year, and the scheme is sized to help 40,000 buyers over four years, the same report said.
Queensland has two price caps. The Help to Buy cap table on the Australian Government's First Home Buyers website gives $1,000,000 for Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, and $700,000 for the rest of the state. The table below shows what the three sources of money look like at the lower cap.
| Source of funds | Existing home | New home |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer's deposit (2%) | $14,000 | $14,000 |
| Commonwealth share | $210,000 (30%) | $280,000 (40%) |
| Home loan | $476,000 | $406,000 |
Illustrative figures, calculated from the contribution rates and minimum deposit published for the scheme. $700,000 is the price cap outside Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.
The loan in each column is what the lender assesses. On an existing home at the regional cap the buyer borrows 68 per cent of the price; on a new one, 58 per cent. That is the feature a new panel lender is signing up to: a first home loan well under the 80 per cent mark at which lenders mortgage insurance is normally charged, written for a borrower whose income would not support the full price.
The buyers behind the figures
The trade reports repeated the scheme's most recent count, which Housing Australia released on 1 July. More than 7,200 applications have been received since the launch, and 4,800 applicants have either settled or found a home. Some 86 per cent are first home buyers. About 70 per cent applied as single people, and 12 per cent are single parents. The median deposit is about $30,000. Demand has been strongest in Victoria, then New South Wales, then Queensland, The Adviser reported.
Related readBuying a first home with a family guarantee: how it works, what it risksThose numbers describe a buyer on one income with modest savings: a single applicant earning up to $103,000 who has put aside about $30,000. A bank whose brands are aimed at teachers, health workers, university staff and firefighters is being added to a scheme whose typical applicant is a single wage earner. The income limit does much of the sorting. Two full-time salaries can pass $165,000 between them, which may be one reason single applicants dominate.
Housing Australia has still not published a count of participants for each state. Queensland's third place remains a ranking without a number.
Queensland buyers have one more thing to weigh. The State runs its own shared equity scheme, Boost to Buy, through a single lender, Unity Bank, with higher income limits and a smaller number of places. The Help to Buy rules exclude a buyer who is receiving help from another shared equity scheme, loan or guarantee, so a Queensland buyer chooses between the two schemes and cannot hold both. A third federal lender widens one of those two paths and leaves the other as it was.
How the panel has grown
The scheme's short history shows how gradually it has been built out, state by state and lender by lender.
- 5 December 2025Applications open through two lenders, in six states and territories including Queensland.
- June 2026Tasmania joins, making the scheme available in every state and territory.
- 1 July 202610,000 places open for 2026-27 and the income limits rise to $103,000 and $165,000.
- 27 July 2026Teachers Mutual Bank becomes the third lender, taking applications from members directly.
- 6 October 2026Its Help to Buy loans become available through mortgage brokers.
Set beside the 5% Deposit Scheme, which the First Home Buyers website says is offered by more than 30 lenders, a panel of three is still short. The two schemes ask different things of a bank. A guarantee changes the insurance on an ordinary loan. Shared equity puts a second owner's interest behind the mortgage for as long as the buyer keeps the home, and each lender has to build the systems for that before it can write the first loan. Mr Johnson's remark about bedding in the process before opening to brokers is a description of that work.
What to watch from Queensland
Three things follow from the announcement for a Queensland first buyer who meets the income test.
The first is membership. A customer-owned bank lends to its members, and a buyer who wants to apply through the new lender needs to check with it whether they can join. The reports do not set out the bank's membership rules.
The second is the calendar. A buyer who would rather work through a broker has one panel lender available that way today and a second from 6 October. Places for 2026-27 are allocated through the year, and neither the trade reports nor Housing Australia say how many of the 10,000 have been taken since 1 July.
The third is whether more lenders follow. Housing Australia said in December that the panel would grow through 2026. With five months of the year left it has grown by one. For a scheme in which Queensland is the third-largest source of applications, and in which two caps divide the state between the south-east coast and everywhere else, the number of lenders willing to write the loan in a regional town may matter as much as the number of places.
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.
