Most people who ask about Keystart have already decided the answer is no. They have looked at a bank’s deposit requirement, done the sums, and concluded that building a home is something other people do.
This page is here to slow that decision down. Keystart exists because the ordinary bank test rules out a lot of people who can comfortably afford a repayment. Whether it fits you comes down to five checks, and none of them are as mysterious as they sound.
A note on who is writing this. 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 no commercial reason to talk you into a Keystart loan or out of one. Our service costs you nothing — see how we are paid. If you are starting from scratch, the overview is at Keystart home loans in WA.
What Keystart is, in one paragraph
Keystart began in 1989 as an initiative of the WA State Government and still operates with State Government support, under an independent board. It funds its lending predominantly through the Western Australian Treasury Corporation, with some private sector funding alongside it (Keystart, Who we are). It was set up to help Western Australians who can service a home loan but cannot save the deposit a mainstream bank asks for. It lends its own money, holds the mortgage, and sets its own rules. It is not a grant, it is not free money, and it is not a government guarantee sitting behind a bank loan. It is a home loan, with a deposit requirement lower than a bank’s and an interest rate that is usually higher.
The five things Keystart checks
1. Your income
Keystart applies a maximum income limit. Earn above it and you are not eligible, regardless of how good the rest of your application looks. The limits differ for a single applicant and for a couple or family, and they differ again between Keystart’s loan products.
The limits are set per product and per region, and they move. Rather than print a figure that goes stale, use Keystart’s own selector: choose your region on Before you apply for the Low Deposit Home Loan, and the Shared Ownership Home Loan page for that product, which is assessed on lower limits again. Keystart states plainly that “these income limits are applicable for the Low Deposit Home Loan. Limits vary for each loan product.”
Keystart does not publish a fixed annual indexation date. It says its property price limits are reviewed periodically against annualised median house price data from REIWA, so check the limit on the day you are working to, not a figure you read months earlier.
The Shared Ownership Home Loan is assessed on a different set of limits again, and is covered in Keystart shared ownership and shared equity.
Two things surprise people here. The first is that the limit is a ceiling, not a floor — earning more can disqualify you. The second is that it is assessed on gross household income before tax, so a second income counts even if it is part-time.
2. Your deposit
This is the reason most people look at Keystart at all. The minimum deposit is substantially lower than the deposit a bank asks for to avoid lender’s mortgage insurance, and Keystart does not charge lender’s mortgage insurance. Keystart states the deposit is “the higher of 2% or $2,000”, and that it “may vary dependent on location and purchase price” — carry that qualifier, because it is the difference between true and misleading. Every product in Keystart’s range is listed with no lender’s mortgage insurance and no monthly account keeping fees (Compare our home loans, read 7 September 2026).
Lender’s mortgage insurance is worth understanding, because it is the thing Keystart removes. It is a one-off insurance premium a bank charges when you borrow with a small deposit. It protects the bank, not you, and it can add thousands to the amount you borrow.
Keystart does not publish a genuine savings rule — how long you need to have held the deposit, or how a gift from family is treated. It does say you will be asked for financial information including payslips and bank statements, and that it checks your situation carefully before it lends (Home loan process, read 8 September 2026). If your deposit arrived recently, or came from someone else, ask Keystart or your broker how it will be assessed before you count on it.
What Keystart does publish is an employment test: you need “a stable income or regular employment for at least six months”, and some Centrelink benefits are accepted as income (Shared Ownership Home Loan FAQs).
The First Home Owner Grant can go towards your deposit if you are building — see the grants section below.
3. The property price cap
Keystart caps the value of the property you can buy or build, and the cap is set per loan product. Keystart’s own wording is that there is a limit for the Perth metropolitan area and higher limits in regional areas and the State’s North West, and that “the higher property purchase limits also have higher deposit requirements”.
We deliberately do not print the figure. It has moved twice in 2026 and a stale cap on this page would send someone to the wrong land. Read it on the product page you are actually applying under — the Low Deposit Home Loan and the Shared Ownership Home Loan publish different maximum purchase prices, and the gap between them is substantial.
One trap worth naming: the loan amount selector on the Low Deposit page is not the purchase price cap. The cap is stated separately on the same page.
For a house and land package the cap applies to the combined cost of the land and the build, not the land alone. That single point catches out more buyers than anything else on this page, and it is covered properly in Can you use Keystart for a house and land package?.
4. Whether you already own property
Keystart is not strictly a first home buyer product, but it is built around the idea that you do not already own real estate. The general condition is that you must not own another property or block of land at settlement. Keystart’s wording is that its loans “are not available if you own land or another home at settlement”. Having owned before does not rule you out: Keystart states “subsequent home buyers are eligible to apply as long as you don’t currently own or part own any other home or land”, and publishes no waiting period (Shared Ownership Home Loan FAQs, read 7 September 2026).
You must also intend to live in the home. Keystart is for owner-occupiers. You cannot use it to buy an investment property. Keystart’s condition is that 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). That is a longer commitment than the six-month occupancy the First Home Owner Grant asks for, and the two are separate tests.
5. Residency and visa status
If you have recently arrived in Australia, this is usually the check you are most worried about, and it is the one with the least clear information online. Keystart’s stated basic requirement is that you are “an Australian citizen or permanent resident”, are over 18, and live in Western Australia (Before you apply). On its broker page for the Urban Connect Shared Equity Home Loan, Keystart also names the only temporary visas it accepts — subclass 444 for New Zealand citizens, and spousal visas 309 or 820 while inside the two-year wait for permanent residency (Understanding shared ownership home loans). That list is published against one product, so treat it as an indication rather than a rule across the whole range.
Ask Keystart directly, in writing, before you assume you are ineligible. A short, specific email to Keystart naming your visa subclass is worth more than a week of reading forums.
What does not disqualify you
People rule themselves out for reasons that are not actually rules. None of the following are automatic knockouts:
- Being a single applicant on one income.
- Casual or shift work, provided the income is stable and evidenced.
- Having no credit card and a thin credit file.
- Being new to Australia, if you meet the residency conditions.
- Having a small deposit, which is the entire point of the product.
What does hurt an application is unexplained money movement, undisclosed debts, buy-now-pay-later accounts, and an income that cannot be evidenced. Those are fixable. Tidy statements for a few months are worth more than a bigger deposit.
How to check without applying
You do not need to lodge anything to find out roughly where you stand.
- Read the current eligibility criteria on keystart.com.au. It is the only
source that is always current.
- Use Keystart’s own calculators to test a borrowing figure.
- Ask a mortgage broker to compare Keystart against the mainstream lenders you
could also qualify for. Keystart is one option, not the only one.
- Work out the total price you would need to build to, then check it against
the cap for your region.
Step four is where we are useful. We do not arrange your loan — a mortgage broker or Keystart does that. What we do is work backwards from the number you can borrow to the land and the build that actually fit inside it, using our builder panel, at no cost to you.
What Keystart is not
It is not the cheapest loan available. It is not a fixed rate. It is not permanent — most borrowers are expected to refinance to a mainstream lender once they have built enough equity. And it is not a substitute for the WA grants and duty concessions, which are separate and may apply on top. The WA First Home Owner Grant is a one-off payment of up to $10,000 for buying or building a new home, with no income or assets test, and it is not available on established homes (WA Department of Treasury and Finance, read 7 September 2026). It carries its own property value cap, and the first home owner rate of duty has its own thresholds again — both were reset on 7 May 2026, so read them on wa.gov.au rather than trusting a figure quoted anywhere else.
Frequently asked questions
Does Keystart charge lender’s mortgage insurance? No. Every loan in Keystart’s range is published with no lender’s mortgage insurance (Compare our home loans).
Can I use the First Home Owner Grant as part of my Keystart deposit? Yes, if you are building. Keystart’s wording is that “you can use your first home owner grant (FHOG) towards your deposit if you decide to build a new home”. Note the build condition — the grant itself is only available on new homes.
Is Keystart only for first home buyers? Not strictly. Keystart says subsequent home buyers can apply as long as you do not currently own or part own another home or land. The binding condition is current ownership at settlement, not whether you have owned before.
What happens if my income rises above the limit after I settle? The income limit is tested at application. Earning more later does not cancel your loan, but it may make refinancing to a cheaper mainstream lender sensible.
Can I use Keystart to buy an investment property? No. Keystart lends to owner-occupiers only, for the duration of the loan.
Do you charge me to help with this? No. Our service is free to you. See how we are paid.
