Full house: 26 lenders granted a spot in First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (FHLDS)

They say when it rains it pours and that’s exactly what’s occured in the home loans industry within the last 24 hours. 

The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) has officially announced the full list of lenders which will be participating in the federal government’s First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (FHLDS).

If you weren’t aware of the new upcoming scheme, from 1 January 2020, a selected number of Aussie borrowers with a 5% deposit will be able to dodge Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) - a fee which borrowers must pay when they borrow below 80% of the property’s value - while the government guarantees the remaining deposit amount. 

"Today, the government welcomes confirmation from the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) that 27 lenders have been selected, from a wide pool of applicants, to form the initial panel offering guarantee-backed loans under the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme,” said Minister for Housing and Assistant Treasurer, Michael Sukkar

In November, big four bank NAB was the first lender to be given a spot, securing one of the two big bank seats. 

So who took out the second position? It was none other than CommBank, who together with NAB, will be permitted to issue up to 50% of the annual 10,000 guaranteed loans every financial year. 

And the rest? Well without further ado, here are the 25 remaining lenders who will be able to issue the rest of the loans to first home buyers: 

- Australian Military Bank

- Auswide Bank

- Bank Australia

- Bank First

- Bank of Us

- Bendigo Bank

- Beyond Bank Australia

- Community First Credit Union

- CUA

- Defence Bank

- Gateway Bank

- G&C Mutual Bank

- Indigenous Business Australia

- Mortgageport

- MyState Bank

- People’s Choice Credit Union

- Police Bank (including the Border Bank and Bank of Heritage Isle)

- P&N Bank

- QBANK

- Queensland Country Credit Union

- Regional Australia Bank

- Sydney Mutual Bank and Endeavour Mutual Bank 

- Teachers Mutual Bank Limited (including Firefighters Mutual Bank, Health Professionals Bank, Teachers Mutual Bank and UniBank)

- The Mutual Bank

- WAW Credit Union

And according to Sukkar, the wide range of non-bank lenders was no coincidence. 

“The scheme has been deliberately designed to ensure strong representation of smaller lenders on the panel. This will promote competition between the large and small banks, and ensure the Scheme has broad geographic reach, including in regional and remote communities,” he said.

"The composition of the panel should also enable strong activation of mortgage broker channels and promote choice for first home buyers.” 

But if you’re an Aussie ready to snatch up your dream home before the new year, you can head over to our home loan comparison tool to start comparing some of the latest home loan deals or check out some of our first home buyers guidesto make sure up to scratch with all the terminology and processes.