Family-help planner

Family money changes a purchase in three different ways depending on how it arrives. A gift raises the deposit. A loan raises the deposit and adds a repayment. A guarantee leaves the deposit alone and changes what the lender holds as security. This planner runs the same purchase all four ways, including no help at all, so both generations can see what each does to the numbers before anyone signs anything.

How the planner works

Enter the state, the price and the buyer's own savings. Transfer duty and the indicative purchase allowances come out of the savings first, because they are paid at settlement whatever else happens; what is left is the cash deposit. Then choose the help.

• A gift is added to the deposit. The planner shows the new LVR, the LMI premium avoided, and how far the gift sits above Centrelink's annual gifting free area, which matters if the giver receives or is approaching a pension.
• A family loan is added to the deposit in the same way, and its repayment, at the rate and term entered, is added to the monthly commitments, because a lender usually counts a repayable family loan as a debt when it tests serviceability.
• A guarantee leaves the deposit where it is. The planner works out the limited guarantee that brings the loan to 80% of the price, which is the point at which insurance usually no longer applies, and estimates how long it takes for repayments alone to bring the loan back under that line so the guarantee can be released.

The table under the result shows all four side by side at the same figures.

A worked example

A purchase at $900,000 in NSW with $90,000 of the buyer's own savings and $100,000 of family help, computed by the same code. Duty of $34,687 and the purchase allowances leave $52,713 for the deposit before any help.

State/territory transfer-duty rate bands — NSW on the 2026–27 scale (the tiers from $387,000 and premium duty read on Revenue NSW 15 Sep 2026; the three tiers below reconstructed from the published base amount), VIC and SA schedules verified against the revenue office 15 Sep 2026, NT top rates per the Territory Revenue Office 15 Sep 2026, ACT first band from 1 Jul 2025 with the upper bands unverified; first-home-buyer concessions as published for 2026–27 (checked 6 Sep 2026). Indicative LMI premium matrix (typical insurer schedules by LVR band and loan size) — undated, indicative only. The family loan row assumes an interest-free loan repaid over ten years; the guarantee row assumes a limited guarantee of $127,287, the amount that brings this loan to 80% of the price. First-home-buyer figures assume you meet the relevant eligibility conditions, which the report does not verify: you (and any co-buyer) are an individual who has not previously owned property in Australia, you are an Australian citizen or permanent resident, you intend to move in and live there for the required period, and you meet any state price, contract-date, residency or income tests that apply. Confirm eligibility with the relevant state revenue office before relying on these figures.

The "at stake" column is the plainest way to compare the three: a gift is money the parents no longer have, a loan is money they expect back, and a guarantee is money they may be asked for only if repayments stop. The monthly column shows the other side of the same trade.

What the planner does not know

It does not know any lender's policy. Some lenders count part of a gift as genuine savings only after it has sat in the buyer's account for a period; some cap a guarantee at a share of the price; some will not accept a guarantee from a guarantor who is retired or whose only asset is the family home. It does not know the giver's Centrelink position, only the size of the gift against the free area. It does not model the property's value moving, which is what usually decides when a guarantee is actually released. And it does not say whether a family should help. The guides in the family-help hub cover each of those questions in words; the planner only does the arithmetic.

Checking the figures

Duty is the same figure the stamp duty calculator gives for the state, and the insurance premium is the same matrix the LMI calculator uses; each of those pages says how to check its figure against the official source. A broker can run the same purchase through an actual lender's policy. The report does something different again: it shows where the price itself sits against recorded sales, which is the number both generations are relying on before any of the money moves.