Shared equity is the Keystart product people find hardest to trust, and the suspicion is reasonable. Someone else owns part of your home. It is worth understanding properly rather than dismissing.
The short version: the Western Australian Government’s housing body buys a share of the property alongside you. You borrow less, so your repayment is lower and your income does not have to stretch as far. When you sell, or when you buy the share back, the government gets its share of the value at that time — not the amount it originally put in.
That last sentence is the whole trade.
House & Land Co is an independent building advisory in Perth. We are not a lender, we are not Keystart, and we do not issue or approve loans. We have nothing to gain from your answer either way. Our service is free to you — see how we are paid. If you are starting from scratch, the overview is at Keystart home loans in WA.
What it is actually called
Keystart’s product is the Shared Ownership Home Loan, and it is still offered. Keystart runs it under three named variants — SharedStart, GoodStart for people already in public housing buying the home they live in, and the Sole Parent Home Loan for a sole parent with dependants keeping the family home after a relationship breakdown or the death of a partner. Each carries its own comparison rate (Shared Ownership Home Loan, read 7 September 2026). There is a separate Urban Connect Shared Equity Home Loan as well, which matters if you are building — see below. People search for “shared equity” because that is the general term used across Australia. They are the same idea.
Do not confuse any of it with the federal Help to Buy scheme. That is a separate national scheme, open now with 10,000 places a year, under which the Australian Government contributes up to 30% of the purchase price on an existing home or up to 40% on a newly built one, against a minimum 2% deposit. You apply through a participating lender, not to the government direct (Australian Government Help to Buy Scheme, read 7 September 2026).
You cannot run both. Help to Buy’s criteria exclude anyone receiving “help from other schemes, including shared equity schemes, loans or guarantees provided by States or Territories to support the purchase”. Help to Buy and a Keystart shared ownership loan are alternatives, not a stack. Stamp duty concessions and grants are still allowed alongside Help to Buy. Its income ceilings are indexed each financial year and its property price caps are set by separate policy decisions, so read both on firsthomebuyers.gov.au rather than from a figure quoted here.
How it works
The Housing Authority takes an ownership share in the property. You own the rest, you live in it, and you borrow only against your portion.
You do not choose the split. Keystart is blunt about it: “the percentage you own in a shared ownership home loan will be determined by your financial situation” (Shared Ownership Home Loan FAQs, read 7 September 2026).
There are two kinds of arrangement, and the difference decides what you can do later:
- Flexible. You can buy more shares over time, or refinance to another
lender, when you are in a position to.
- Fixed. The Housing Authority keeps its percentage permanently. You cannot
buy further shares and you cannot refinance away. If you sell, it must be sold back to the Housing Authority at the valuation price. Keystart uses fixed loans to hold properties in specific Perth metropolitan locations (All about shared equity, read 7 September 2026).
Ask which one you are being offered before anything else. It is the biggest difference between the two and it is not obvious from the product name.
Keystart does not publish a maximum share the Housing Authority will hold. What it does publish is that the share is not yours to choose — “the percentage you own in a shared ownership home loan will be determined by your financial situation” (Shared Ownership Home Loan FAQs, read 8 September 2026). Ask what your share will be, in writing, before you commit to anything. It sets your repayment now and the amount you have to buy back later.
The Shared Ownership Home Loan is assessed on its own income limits and its own maximum purchase price, both lower than the standard Low Deposit Home Loan, and both move. Read the current figures on the Shared Ownership Home Loan page, which carries a region selector, rather than from a figure quoted here.
An illustration, using round numbers that are not real figures and are only there to show the mechanism:
A home is worth $500,000. The Housing Authority takes a 30% share and you own 70%. You borrow against $350,000 rather than $500,000, so your repayment is materially lower. Years later the home is worth $600,000. The Housing Authority’s 30% share is now worth $180,000, not the $150,000 it put in. To buy it out, or on sale, that is the figure that settles.
Read that again, because it is the part that catches people. The share is a percentage of value, not a fixed dollar debt. If the property rises, the share rises with it. If the property falls, the share falls too — the risk runs both ways.
What it costs you
You give up part of the capital gain. In a rising market, that is the price of the lower repayment. Nobody is hiding it, but plenty of people do not do the arithmetic before they sign.
You have conditions attached to the property. Two of them are confirmed. Every Keystart loan is owner-occupier only — its loans “are for owner-occupiers only, meaning you plan to live in your home for the duration of your loan with us” (Do you qualify, read 7 September 2026) — so renting the home out is not on the table. On selling, Keystart says “you can sell your home at any time”, except on a fixed loan, where the sale is back to the Housing Authority at valuation. There are no rent-style inspections; your obligations sit in the mortgage and the Co-owners Deed (Shared Ownership Home Loan FAQs, read 7 September 2026). Read the Co-owners Deed before you sign it. It is the document that actually governs what you can do with the property.
What Keystart does not publish is the consent rules for a major renovation or a subdivision, or how improvements you pay for yourself are treated when the property is valued. Those terms sit in the Co-owners Deed, and the Deed is not published — checked again on 8 September 2026 across the Shared Ownership Home Loan page and its FAQs, All about shared equity and Urban Connect Shared Equity. If you have any intention of extending, renovating or subdividing, read that clause in the Deed before you sign it. Work you fund yourself could lift the valuation that settles the Housing Authority’s share.
Your choice of property is narrower, and on the Shared Ownership Home Loan it is narrower than most people expect. You do not shop the open market. Keystart directs eligible buyers to the properties listed on the Opening Doors website — homes, apartments and units around the Perth metropolitan area — with other established properties possible depending on your circumstances. Fixed shared ownership loans are restricted further, to specific Perth metropolitan locations listed on that site (All about shared equity, read 7 September 2026). The maximum purchase price is lower than the standard low deposit product, and the gap is substantial — the current figure is on the Shared Ownership Home Loan page.
Buying the share back
On a flexible loan you are not locked in. You can buy back the Housing Authority’s share over time, at market value at the time of each purchase. The minimum you can buy at any one time is a 5% share, and there is no maximum — you can buy as many shares as you can afford. Keystart arranges an independent property valuer to value the home so the Housing Authority’s share can be priced, and it reviews your income, other debts, expenses and the current value of the home first to check the larger repayment is sustainable. Stamp duty concessions and incentives may apply on the purchase of further shares (All about shared equity and Shared Ownership Home Loan FAQs, read 7 September 2026).
On a fixed loan you can do none of this. There is no buy-back and no refinancing out. Check which loan you are on before you plan around it.
The practical strategy most advisers describe is to buy the share back earlier rather than later in a rising market, because every year of growth makes the remaining share more expensive. In a flat market there is less urgency.
Who it suits
It tends to suit a buyer whose income comfortably services a smaller loan but not a full one, who wants a home to live in for the long term, who values a lower and steadier repayment over maximum capital gain, and who intends to buy the share back as their income grows.
It tends not to suit a buyer whose main goal is wealth building through capital growth, anyone who expects to want to rent the home out, anyone likely to want a substantial renovation, or a buyer who could reasonably qualify for a standard loan instead.
If you can service a standard Keystart Low Deposit Home Loan, that is usually the better option. Shared ownership is for the step below that, where the full repayment does not fit. Compare the two before assuming shared ownership is your only path — Keystart eligibility sets out the standard test.
Can you use shared ownership to build?
This is the question we are asked most, and the answer is yes — but not on the Shared Ownership Home Loan.
The Shared Ownership Home Loan is a buy-an-existing-home product. Keystart’s own Key Facts Sheet tool on that page offers “buy a home” and disables “build a home”, and its shared equity guide sends you to the Opening Doors listings rather than to a builder (Shared Ownership Home Loan and All about shared equity, read 7 September 2026).
The shared equity product that does cover building is the Urban Connect Shared Equity Home Loan. The Housing Authority co-owns with you and contributes up to $250,000 toward the purchase price (as at September 2026). It is available for an off-the-plan or newly built apartment, townhouse, villa or unit, for a new build on green title land up to 300 square metres in the metro area and up to 500 square metres in regional areas, or for a new build on survey strata title with no land size limit (Urban Connect Shared Equity Home Loan, read 7 September 2026).
Read that land size limit twice. Three hundred square metres rules out most conventional house and land stock in Perth’s growth corridors. If you want a standard block and a standard build, the low deposit product is the path, and it is covered in Keystart for house and land packages.
What to do before you decide
- Read the Shared Ownership Home Loan criteria on keystart.com.au. It is the
only current source.
- Ask Keystart or a mortgage broker for the repayment on both products, side by
side, on the same property.
- Work out what the share would cost to buy back in five years at a couple of
different growth rates. Do it on paper.
- Check the conditions on renting, renovating and selling against how you
actually intend to live.
- Then, and only then, look at property. We can help with that last part at no
cost to you.
Frequently asked questions
Does the government own my house? It owns a share of it. You are on the title, you live there, and there are no rent-style inspections. Your obligations sit in the mortgage and the Co-owners Deed. You do not choose the size of the share — Keystart sets it from your financial situation (Shared Ownership Home Loan FAQs, read 7 September 2026). Keystart does not publish a maximum share for this product, so ask what yours would be before you go any further.
What happens when I sell? The Housing Authority receives its percentage of the sale value at that time, not the amount it originally contributed.
Can I buy the share back gradually? On a flexible loan, yes — a minimum 5% share at a time, as many as you can afford, priced from an independent valuation Keystart arranges. On a fixed loan, no (All about shared equity, read 7 September 2026).
Can I rent the property out? No. Every Keystart loan is owner-occupier only — you are expected to “live in your home for the duration of your loan with us” (Do you qualify, read 7 September 2026).
Can I renovate? Your obligations here are set by the Co-owners Deed rather than by anything Keystart publishes, so get the answer in writing before you commit to any work.
Is this the same as the federal Help to Buy scheme? No, and you cannot use both. Help to Buy is a separate national scheme, open now, run by Housing Australia through participating lenders, and its rules exclude anyone getting help from a State or Territory shared equity scheme. Its current criteria and price caps are on firsthomebuyers.gov.au.
Do you charge me to help work this out? No. Our service is free to you. See how we are paid.
