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What counts as genuine savings for a home loan?

Bayley Clarke · Mortgage broker on the road · Last checked 11 November 2026 · 8 min read

The short answer

Genuine savings is money you've put aside yourself and held in your own name, normally for about three months. It's the bank checking you can find a mortgage repayment every month before it hands you one.

It generally only bites when you're borrowing above 90% of the property's value, and the usual yardstick is about 5% of the price. Where it gets interesting is what each lender will accept as "genuine": a gift, a car sale, a tax refund, your rent history. The panel genuinely doesn't agree, so the same deposit can pass at one bank and fail at the next.

What genuine savings means, and the 5% rule of thumb

So what happens is the bank opens your statements and looks for a pattern. Money going in from your pay, the balance growing or at least sitting there, over roughly the last three months. If you've been saving steadily, you've already ticked the box.

A balance that appeared last Tuesday doesn't prove a habit, and the habit is what pays a mortgage. Most lenders ask for it when you're borrowing above 90% of the value, a couple start at 85%, and the amount they want to see is generally around 5% of the purchase price. A handful of specialist lenders don't ask for genuine savings at all, which is worth knowing if your deposit came together in a hurry.

If you're renting, there's a common way around a thin savings history: a rental ledger. Rent you've reliably paid every week is money you could have saved, and a good number of lenders accept a clean rent history in place of the usual pattern. How many months, whether it has to come through an agent, and who has to be on the lease all vary lender to lender.

Not sure your deposit counts? I'll look at the statements with you

Half an hour. We go through where your deposit came from, whether it passes the genuine savings test as it sits today, and which lenders fit if it doesn't.

Book a 30 minute call Call 0437 189 939

No application, no credit check, nothing on your file. Just the numbers.

When you don't need it, and the 5% scheme that still asks

Bring a deposit that keeps you at or under 90% of the value and the genuine savings question normally disappears.

The 5% Deposit Scheme is where people get caught. The government guarantee takes care of the deposit floor and the mortgage insurance, and that's all it does. The scheme's own rules say you need to have saved at least 5% of the property value (2% for single parents), and they leave the rest to the participating lender's own lending criteria. So I'm using the 5% scheme. Do I still need genuine savings? Yes, generally, because you're borrowing 95%. Several lenders apply genuine savings to every scheme loan regardless, and a few are stricter about what counts toward that 5% than they are on a normal loan.

Does a gift count as genuine savings? Letters, limits and timing

First, how much can parents gift for a deposit? There's no limit. Is there a limit on how much of a gift I can use for my deposit? No: a thousand dollars or the whole deposit, as long as it's unconditional and never has to be paid back.

Whether that gift also ticks the genuine savings box is a different question. My parents are gifting me the deposit. Does that count as genuine savings? At most banks, no. They'll take it as deposit but want the saving proven some other way. A couple of the big banks count a non-refundable family gift as genuine with no holding period, several only count it once it's sat in your account for three months, and at least one never counts it. Pretty much all of them want a signed gift letter or statutory declaration saying it doesn't come back.

Same goes for savings parked in mum and dad's name. Can I use money sitting in my parents' account as savings? Not while it's there, because the bank verifies the name on the statement. Gift it across with a letter, let it sit in your own account for 90 days, and by the time we apply it's both yours and genuinely saved.

Can I use cash for my deposit? Cash, car sales, tax refunds and one-off money

Cash under the mattress technically doesn't exist to a bank. I've got cash savings at home. Do I need to bank it before I apply for a home loan? Yes, and early. A balance jumping from one grand to fifty-one grand in a day is a problem, so either we verify it another way or we wait out the lender's holding period, which can be one month or three.

Does selling my car count as genuine savings? Generally no, because the bank figures you'll need another car. The money can still go into the deposit at most lenders and a handful even count it as genuine, but usually the rent history does the proving instead. Does my tax refund count as genuine savings? A lot of lenders list a refund as genuine outright, and nobody draws a line at a dollar figure. The fussier ones care how long it's been sitting in your account. Fifteen grand doing most of the work is worth checking before you apply.

Shares, crypto, FHSS and money overseas

Do my shares or crypto help with my deposit, or should I sell them? Shares, the banks see as pretty much savings, and several lenders count them once they've been held around three months. Crypto, they're a bit scared of. I haven't found a lender that counts it as genuine savings, so sell it, move the cash into your account and give it time to sit.

Does my First Home Super Saver scheme money count as genuine savings? Yes, of course it does. You put it in deliberately over time and it can't be touched for anything but your first home, which is about as genuine as savings get. The catch is timing: it sits in your super until you ask for it, and the ATO says the release can take 15 to 20 business days to reach you. Lenders differ on whether they want it released before you apply or only before approval, so that gets lined up before we lodge.

Can my deposit be sitting overseas, or in a foreign currency? Yes, as long as the account is in your name and we can verify it's yours. We convert it to Australian dollars with a buffer in case the exchange rate moves, and bring it home well before settlement.

Can I use a personal loan for my deposit? Borrowed deposits explained

Can I use a personal loan or a credit card for my deposit? No, you really shouldn't. You'd be paying expensive unsecured money to buy the cheapest money you'll ever borrow, the new repayment comes straight off your borrowing power, and borrowed money won't pass a genuine savings test anywhere. If the deposit is the wall, a guarantor, a gift or the scheme are all worth looking at first.

Family money that has to go back is the same thing in a nicer jumper. Can my parents lend me the deposit instead of gifting it to me? Of course they can, but because it's repayable, the bank treats it as a debt and counts the repayments against you. A gift generally gives you the most borrowing power. Calling a loan a gift on a signed letter isn't a workaround, it's a false declaration, and it's not something I'll do with you.

Joint accounts and whose savings they are

If I'm saving in a joint account with my partner, does it count as genuine savings if I'm buying by myself? Buying together, no drama, the whole balance counts. Buying solo, we generally need to show which portion is actually yours, which means matching the deposits to your pay. There's a second catch people don't expect: two names on the account tells the bank you're in a relationship, and most lenders then assess you on couple living expenses even though your partner isn't on the loan. Only some will treat you as single or split the costs. So the first decision isn't about the account. It's whether you're buying together or separately.

The honest part

Genuine savings is the easiest deposit problem to fix and the most common one to leave too late. Nearly every fix runs on a clock: 90 days in your own name, three months of rent history, a gift that has to sit before it counts. Start the clock the week you start thinking about buying.

And if your deposit has a gift in it, a car sale in it, or it only landed last month, say so on the first call. It just changes which lenders we look at.

Want to know if your deposit passes before you apply?

Send me three months of statements and tell me where the money came from. I'll tell you which lenders count it the way you need, what clock you're on if they don't, and when you're ready to go.

Book a 30 minute call Call 0437 189 939

No application, no credit check, nothing on your file. Just the numbers.

Common questions about genuine savings

What counts as genuine savings for a home loan?+

Money you have saved yourself and held in an account in your name, normally over about three months, with the balance growing or sitting steady. Most lenders ask for it when you borrow above 90% of the property's value and look for around 5% of the price. Many also accept a clean rental history in place of the usual saving pattern.

Does a gift from my parents count as genuine savings?+

At most lenders, no. They will take the gift as part of your deposit but want your saving proven another way. A couple of lenders count a non-refundable family gift as genuine savings, some only once it has sat in your account for three months, and one or two never do. Almost all want a signed gift letter or statutory declaration saying it never has to be paid back.

Do I need genuine savings on the 5% Deposit Scheme?+

Generally yes. The scheme requires you to have saved at least 5% of the property value and leaves the rest to the participating lender's own criteria. Because a scheme loan is 95% of the value, most lenders apply their genuine savings test, and some apply it to every scheme loan regardless of size.

Does rent count as genuine savings?+

At a good number of lenders, yes. A rental ledger showing you have paid rent on time can stand in for the usual savings history. How many months they want, whether it must come through an agent, and whether everyone on the lease has to be on the loan all vary by lender, and late payments usually rule it out.

Can I use a personal loan for my house deposit?+

You shouldn't. Borrowed money won't pass a genuine savings test, the repayment comes straight off what you can borrow, and you'd be paying unsecured rates on the part of the purchase you were meant to own outright. A guarantor, a family gift or the 5% scheme are worth looking at first.

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