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Can I use my own bank for Help to Buy?

Bayley Clarke · Mortgage broker on the road · Last checked 16 October 2026 · 4 min read

The 60 second version, filmed from the driver's seat. The rest of this page is the detail underneath it.

What Help to Buy actually is

Help to Buy is the government's shared equity scheme. The government puts in up to 30% of the price on an existing home, or up to 40% on a new one, and takes that share of the property. You need as little as a 2% deposit, and your loan only has to cover what's left. On a $600k home with the government at 30%, that's a loan of around $408k, against $570k with a 5% deposit and no government share.

There are rules on who gets in. Income caps sit at $103k for a single and $165k for a couple or single parent. You have to live in the home, and renting it out isn't allowed. When you sell, or buy the government out, its share is based on the property's value at that time, so it shares the gain and the loss.

Where the banks actually split on this

This is where it gets thin. Help to Buy only runs through participating lenders, and through the broker channel, as of October 2026, essentially one lender on my panel is confirmed as participating. Its broker channel only opened on 6 October 2026. For every other lender on the panel, there's nothing in their policy saying they take part.

Even the one that does hasn't published much beyond the scheme rules. Whether it adds its own overlays, which property types it takes, and whether it'll do a build under Help to Buy aren't written down yet. So right now, every Help to Buy deal is a conversation with that lender, not a box you tick.

At least one lender's policy reads as though it won't take loans tied to any shared equity scheme at all. And a couple of the big banks use the words 'shared equity' for something different: a guarantee between co-owners who aren't partners. If you see that phrase on a bank's website, it doesn't mean Help to Buy.

If your bank can't do it

So when someone asks if they can use their own bank, the honest answer is almost always no. That's not a knock on your bank. It's just how few lenders are in so far. If Help to Buy is the right fit, go to a bank that will do it. Your everyday banking can stay where it is. Only the home loan needs to sit with the participating lender.

Or we look at the other ways in. The 5% scheme gets you in with a 5% deposit and no lenders mortgage insurance, and the government doesn't take a share of your home. A family guarantee uses mum and dad's equity instead of a big deposit. Generally you pick one: a guarantor loan can't be stacked on top of the 5% scheme.