---
title: Quickest Suburbs to Save for Your First Home Deposit
description: Discover the suburbs where it's quickest to save a deposit for your first home. Learn about the factors that make these areas more affordable.
---

[Property News & Insights ](https://australianpropertyupdate.com.au/apu)

# [Quickest Suburbs to Save for Your First Home Deposit](https://australianpropertyupdate.com.au/apu/the-suburbs-where-its-quickest-to-save-a-deposit-for-your-first-home)

 Written by [Scott Kuru](https://australianpropertyupdate.com.au/apu/author/scott-kuru) | Feb 22, 2024 6:00:00 PM

There’s no question that Australia is one of the most expensive places on earth to buy residential property, and over the last 30 years, the number of younger Australians (those aged 25-34) achieving home ownership has fallen.

 

That doesn’t necessarily mean the dream of home ownership is out of reach, though.

 

New research from the Domain real estate group and Unloan - the Commonwealth Bank’s no-frills digital lending arm - looks specifically at the locations and the types of properties that provide the best opportunities for a couple in this cohort on average wages to climb the property ladder.  

 

 

**The findings**

 

It’s no surprise that the top of the list is where in Australia you live.

 

“First-home buyers across our capital cities face vastly different journeys when saving for a 20% deposit on an entry-priced home, from 2 years and 3 months for an entry unit in Darwin to 6 years and 8 months for an entry house in Sydney,” the report says.

 

Australia’s most expensive city also tops the list when it comes to saving for the deposit on an entry-level unit - at 4 years and 6 months.

 

Canberra has the second-longest time to save for an entry-price house deposit, followed by Melbourne, then Brisbane 

 

“The west-side story keeps getting better,” say the report’s authors - Dr Nicola Powell - Domain’s Chief of Research and Economics and Dan Oertli - the CEO of Unloan.

 

“Perth offers a lower entry purchasing price mixed with a relatively higher average wage, creating the ideal outcome of the second shortest saving time for houses and units.”

 

 

Domain and Unloan chose the 20% deposit figure, as this is usually the minimum required by lending institutions without requiring borrowers to take out expensive lenders’ mortgage insurance (LMI). 

 

This is less of a problem for investors who can often deduct the cost of LMI from rental property income. 

 

Domain and Unloan’s calculations were also based on the couple making regular contributions to a high-interest savings account as they built their home deposit.

 

However, the report points out that there are two sides to higher interest rates - yes, they might enable you to save for a deposit faster, yet when you take out a property loan, it will mean costlier repayments.

 

## **Type of property**

A clear theme running through Domain and Unloan’s 2024 First-Home Buyer Report is that it’s still possible for younger buyers to get onto the property ladder - especially if they don’t have the backing of the so-called “Bank of Mum and Dad” - but they need to be realistic.

 

“The type of property a first-home buyer has set their sights on can significantly affect when they step onto the property ladder,” say Nicola Powell and Dan Oertli. 

 

“It’s not a surprise that the time to save a deposit for an entry-priced unit is significantly shorter than for an entry-priced house, given the difference in purchasing price,” they say, pointing to data which shows that across the combined capitals, a first-home buyer could purchase an entry-priced unit 18 months sooner than a detached house. 

 

“The speed to market access is even starker across our most expensive cities, Sydney and Canberra, with the savings time for units 2 years and 2 months shorter than that for a house.”

 

The difference isn’t so stark across the combined regional measure, with couples being in a position to be able to put down a deposit on a unit only 11 months earlier than a house, reflecting the narrower price differential between property types in regional Australia.

 

**Location, location, location…**

 

Compromises might also be needed when it comes to the location of property for first-home buyers, particularly if they are looking to purchase a house.

 

So while Domain and Unloan say the citywide figure for a young Sydney couple to save a deposit for an entry-level house is 6 years and 8 months, they would need only 5 years and 7 months to save for a house in Wyong on the Central Coast, which is still within the Greater Sydney urban area.

 

Likewise in Melbourne, saving for a deposit on an entry-level house in the Melton-Bacchus Marsh area in the city’s outer west would take only 4 years and 6 months, compared to the citywide average of 5 years and 5 months.

 

But it’s not always a case of having to look far afield from city centres.

 

For example in Perth, the area with the shortest time for a couple to save a 20% house deposit includes suburbs surrounding the CBD.

 

It would take only 3 years and 3 months in the Australian Bureau of Statistics “Perth City” area, which takes in suburbs such as Subiaco, Highgate, Inglewood and Shenton Park.

 

 

**Looking forward…**

 

The 2024 First-Home Buyer Report says that while the upcoming revised stage 3 tax cuts are expected to reduce the time needed to save a deposit by an additional month for entry-priced houses and units, in most cities “this alone isn’t sufficient to significantly impact the market”. 

 

In contrast, it notes the federal government’s proposed Help to Buy scheme is a much more substantial initiative, “dramatically reducing the time required to save for a deposit.” 

 

Under that limited place scheme, it’s possible for people to buy a home with as little as a 2% deposit, with the government taking a shared equity stake. 

 

Schemes like this “highlight how effective policies can support our first-home buyers”, Domain and Unloan say.

[View full post](https://australianpropertyupdate.com.au/apu/the-suburbs-where-its-quickest-to-save-a-deposit-for-your-first-home)

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