Short answer: with the Australian Government's 5% Deposit Scheme, most first home buyers in Penrith need a 5% deposit, with no lenders mortgage insurance. On a unit around $650,000 to $715,000 that's roughly $33,000 to $36,000, and first home buyers pay no stamp duty at that price. On a house around $1.1m to $1.2m, it's $55,000 to $60,000, plus full stamp duty (about $48,000 on a $1.2m house), because Penrith house prices now sit above the NSW first home buyer concession cap of $1m.
The 20% deposit used to be the rule. For most first home buyers it isn't any more. What decides how much cash you need in Penrith in 2026 is the property type, the price, and whether you qualify for the government schemes. Here's how the numbers actually work.
Penrith prices depend a lot on which data source you look at, so treat these as a rough guide:
Sources: PRD Penrith Market Update, first half 2026; suburb sales data to October 2026.
Sydney values have been easing through 2026 (Cotality reports Sydney down about 7% over the year to September), so what you see on a listing today may not match last year's sales. A pre-approval tells you what you can borrow, which matters more than any median.
The Australian Government's 5% Deposit Scheme (it used to be called the First Home Guarantee) lets eligible first home buyers buy with a 5% deposit and no lenders mortgage insurance. The government guarantees the gap between your deposit and 20%.
Since October 2025 the scheme has:
Single parents and single legal guardians may be able to buy with as little as 2% under the Family Home Guarantee.
The official 5% Deposit Scheme page has the full eligibility rules and a postcode price-cap lookup. You'll still need to pass the lender's own checks on income, expenses and savings history.
This is where Penrith gets interesting. For eligible first home buyers in NSW buying a new or existing home:
Vacant land has its own lower thresholds (exempt up to $350,000, concession to $450,000).
So a first home buyer paying $850,000 pays around $9,800 in duty instead of about $32,400. At $1.2m there's no concession, and duty is about $48,200. The details are on Revenue NSW.
The $10,000 First Home Owner Grant only applies to new homes, capped at $600,000 to buy or $750,000 to build, so it rarely helps in Penrith outside some new units and house-and-land.
These are rounded, before legal fees, inspections and moving costs (budget a few thousand for those).
That unit-vs-house gap surprises most people we talk to. For a first home buyer in Penrith, the jump from a unit to a house isn't just a bigger loan. It's an extra $48,000 or so of stamp duty that has to come from savings.
Then there's the loan itself. Your deposit gets you in the door, but your income and expenses decide how much a lender will actually lend. Our borrowing power calculator gives a quick estimate, and we'll run the real numbers across 70+ lenders.
If you don't qualify for the scheme, or you're buying above the cap, a parent can use the equity in their home as security for part of your loan. That can mean little or no deposit and no LMI. It's a big decision for the family, so we talk it through with everyone involved and they get independent legal advice. More on our guarantor loans page.
You can still buy with less than 20% outside the scheme, but you'll usually pay lenders mortgage insurance, which protects the lender, not you. On a Penrith house it can run into the tens of thousands, and it's often added to the loan. Sometimes paying it is the right move, so you can buy sooner. We'll show you the numbers both ways.
In Penrith in 2026, a first home buyer using the 5% Deposit Scheme needs roughly $34,000 plus costs for a unit and roughly $108,000 plus costs for a $1.2m house, mostly because of stamp duty above $1m. A guarantor or a cheaper property under $800,000 changes the picture completely.
The fastest way to get your own number is a quick chat. We're a local mortgage broker Penrith buyers can sit down with, based up the hill in Glenbrook, and we check every scheme and concession you're eligible for as part of our first home buyer home loans service. The lender pays us, so there's no broker fee.
Call (02) 4744 2054 or book a free chat. Buying further up the hill? See our first home buyer's guide to the Blue Mountains.
This article is general information only and doesn't take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Government scheme rules, thresholds and lending criteria change, and eligibility criteria apply. Figures are rounded and current as at October 2026. Four Red Hats Pty Ltd (t/a Lend Local Co) ACN 666 330 972 is authorised under LMG Broker Services Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 517192.
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