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Straight Answers · First home
I'm a single parent. Can I really buy with a 2% deposit?
Bayley Clarke · Mortgage broker on the road · Last checked 3 September 2026 · 3 min read
The short answer
Yes, you absolutely can. If you are a single parent with a dependent child, the government will offer you the 2% scheme for the purchase of a property. And you don't have to be a first home buyer to be eligible.
The government guarantees 18% of your loan, so you're treated as if you had a 20% deposit and you're not paying lenders mortgage insurance. Not every bank offers it, and it can't be stacked with a guarantor, so which lender we go to is part of the job.
The one minute version. The rest of this page is the detail underneath it.
Who it was built for
The way the scheme's been designed is to support single parents that have recently come out of separation, or have owned property in the past and have had to sell, to help them get back into the market with a lower deposit. That's why you don't have to be a first home buyer. Owning before doesn't rule you out.
The eligibility hinge is a dependant. A single parent, or a single legal guardian, with at least one dependent child living with them. Income and price caps apply and they move over time, so I check the current numbers against your situation rather than quoting them here.
What the guarantee actually does
The government guarantees 18% of your loan. Put that with your 2% and the bank is covered to 20%, so they treat the loan like a 20% deposit loan. The bit that matters most for your cash is that you're not going to be paying lenders mortgage insurance, which at a 2% deposit would otherwise be a serious number.
The guarantee isn't cash. Nobody hands you 18%. It's a promise to the bank that sits behind your loan, and it stays there until your loan drops below 80% of the property's value or you refinance out of the scheme.
Where the banks differ
Not every lender participates in the scheme, and a couple only run it through their own branches rather than through brokers. Among the ones that do, the rules around retained savings, construction loans, and how long a pre-approval lasts are all slightly different.
One rule is the same everywhere it's documented: you can't stack the scheme with a family guarantee. It's one or the other. If you've got a parent willing to go guarantor, that's a different conversation and sometimes the better one.
The honest bit: the deposit is the easy part
Two percent gets you through the deposit door. It doesn't change how much the bank will lend you. That's still income versus outgoings, and on one income with kids, the number can be tighter than you'd hope.
Which is why I'd rather run your numbers first and tell you straight where the ceiling is, then find the property, rather than the other way around. The scheme opens the door. Your borrowing capacity decides which house is behind it.
Single parent and want to see if this works for you?
A 30 minute call. We check the eligibility boxes, run your borrowing capacity on one income, and I tell you which lenders actually offer the scheme for your situation.
No cost to you, ever. The bank pays me when a loan settles. · How I get paid
Next question
What happens if prices fall after I buy with a 5% deposit?Same worry applies at 2%. Here's what the bank does, and doesn't do.
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