Help to Buy Opens Through Teachers Mutual’s Broker Channel Today. It Is the Second Broker Route In, and Only a Trained Pilot Cohort Can Lodge

1. What opens today

Help to Buy is the Australian Government’s shared equity scheme, administered by Housing Australia. The government takes an equity share in the home alongside the buyer, so the buyer needs a smaller deposit and a smaller loan. Until now, broker access has been limited. From today, Teachers Mutual — a mutual with $14.5 billion in assets and more than 280,000 members, per the 2 October reporting — opens its Help to Buy offering to a first group of trained brokers.

2. Who can lodge — and who cannot yet

The detail that matters most this week is that access is staged. Only brokers in the trained pilot cohort can lodge Help to Buy applications with Teachers Mutual from 6 October. A second cohort is due to join at the end of October. Wider access is planned for 2027.

If you are not in a cohort, you cannot lodge through this channel yet. That does not mean you cannot help the client — you can learn the scheme, assess whether it is likely to suit them, and explain the routes that exist. It does mean you should be clear with the client about what you can and cannot do today, and record it.

3. A 2% deposit and a government equity share

Housing Australia sets the core settings. The buyer needs a minimum 2 per cent deposit. The government can contribute an equity share of up to 30 per cent for an existing home and up to 40 per cent for a new home. There are 10,000 places a year.

That changes the shape of the loan. Housing Australia’s own worked example has Rob buying at $800,000 with a $544,000 loan — a 68 per cent LVR. The rest of the price is covered by his deposit and the government’s equity contribution. A first-home buyer on a 2 per cent deposit who would otherwise be borrowing close to the full purchase price is instead borrowing well under 80 per cent of it.

4. Income caps and the notice of assessment

Help to Buy is means-tested. Housing Australia sets income caps of $103,000 for a single applicant and $165,000 for joint applicants or a single parent, assessed on the FY2026 notice of assessment.

Two practical points. First, the test is on the notice of assessment, so the document matters as much as the number. A client whose income has moved since that year, up or down, is assessed on the NOA, not on this year’s payslips. Second, a couple near the joint cap and a single parent are assessed against the same $165,000 figure. Get the household type right before you run the numbers.

The income caps are not the only criteria. Housing Australia publishes the full eligibility rules, and they should be checked in full before you tell a client they qualify.

5. The 90-day reserved place

With 10,000 places a year, places are finite. Housing Australia says a conditional approval reserves the buyer’s place for 90 days. That is a clock, and the broker should manage it like one.

1. Diarise day 90 the moment conditional approval issues. Work back from it, not forward from today.
2. Make sure the client is ready to look. A reserved place is of limited use to a client who has not started house-hunting or worked out their price range.
3. Check new versus existing early. The maximum equity share differs — 40 per cent for new homes, 30 per cent for existing — so the property type changes the numbers.
4. Keep the client informed of the date. Record that you explained the 90-day window and what happens if it lapses, per Housing Australia’s rules.

6. Shared gains, shared losses

Housing Australia says the government shares in gains and losses in proportion to its equity share. That is the single most important thing to explain to a client, and the most likely to be glossed over.

If the home rises in value, the government’s share of the gain is proportional to its stake. If the home falls in value, the government also shares the loss proportionally. With Cotality reporting that 97 per cent of capital-city suburbs fell over the three months to September, that downside sharing is a real feature, not a footnote. It also means the client does not keep all the upside if values rise.

Explain both directions, in plain language, and record that you did. Shared equity is not a cheaper loan. It is a different ownership arrangement, and the client needs to understand it as one before they sign anything.

7. What to do if you are not in the pilot

Most brokers are not in the first Teachers Mutual cohort. That still leaves useful work. Learn the scheme rules from Housing Australia directly. Identify clients who may fit: first-home buyers under the income caps with a small deposit. Run them through the quick-check below. And be honest with them about which routes are open to you today.

If a client appears eligible and you cannot lodge, the client conversation is about options and timing, not about holding the file. Record the advice you gave and why. When the second cohort joins at the end of October, and wider access arrives in 2027, the brokers who already understand the file will be the ones ready to write it.