One in three first home buyers received support through the Home Guarantee Scheme during the 2022/23 financial year, with arrears under the scheme below broader market benchmarks. Housing Australia (formerly the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation) reported that with the expansion of the scheme to offer more guarantees and the addition of the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, the scheme’s share of first home buyer activity increased from one in seven in 2021/22. The number of guarantees increased from 32,500 in 2021/22 to 41,700 in the year to June. The Home Guarantee Scheme includes: the First Home Guarantee; the Family Home Guarantee; the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, which was launched in October last year; and the New Home Guarantee. Under the First Home Guarantee, the RFHBG and the New Home Guarantee, an eligible first home buyer can purchase a property with a deposit of 5 per cent. The Family Home Guarantee supports single parents and guardians with at least one dependent child, with a deposit of as little as 2 per cent. More than half of the places under the First Home Guarantee and the RFHBG went to people under the age of 30. Housing Australia said more than 9700 households, which is around 12 per cent of total guarantees issued to date, have transitioned out of the scheme, “with most of these buyers having accumulated enough equity to achieve a loan-to-valuation ratio of less than 80 per cent and no longer require a guarantee”. The median debt-to-income ratio for couples entering the First Home Guarantee rose from 3.6 times in 2021/22 to 4.2 times in 2022/23. For singles the ratio remained steady at 5.3 times. The average LVR for all borrowers was 93 per cent.  Arrears under the scheme were less than 10 basis points – below broader market benchmarks for high LVR lending. Close to two-thirds (61.2 per cent) of borrowers under the First Home Guarantee were ahead with repayments.