The 5% Deposit Scheme is uncapped — what changed 1 October 2025
Quietly, the most important structural change to first-home-buyer access in a generation has gone live. Here's how investor strategy bends around it.
On 1 October 2025 Housing Australia removed the annual cap on places in the 5% Deposit Scheme and lifted the property price ceilings. The practical effect: any eligible first home buyer can now access a 5% deposit with the Commonwealth guarantee. Regional buyers are uncapped permanently.
For investors, this changes who you are competing against, what you are competing for, and where buyer demand will concentrate.
Where the demand goes
FHB demand will flow disproportionately into the new-build segment. The Budget's 100,000 Homes program is also new-build only. Combined, these two policies create the largest concentrated demand event for newly-constructed housing in Australian history.
That demand is the floor under Hera's house-and-land and dual-occupancy thesis. We're not betting on speculative growth — we're sitting on top of legislated demand.
Dax Stanley
Founder & Principal Strategist, Hera Property. #1 international bestselling author of Real Estate Investing Using ChatGPT.