Home loan applications have surged in response to the government’s expanded 5% deposit scheme, according to Westpac, as first home buyers pile into a hot property market accelerating at its fastest pace in years.
Applications for government-guaranteed mortgages at the big bank more than doubled in October 2025 compared to October 2024, after a 150% jump when the scheme expanded on 1 October, Nathan Goonan, the bank’s chief financial officer, said on Monday.
“The first home buyers guarantee scheme has certainly stimulated some interest,” Goonan told analysts.
“That mortgage market has been accelerated and … we’re certainly feeling that or seeing that, we’ve had increases in pretty much every channel.”
Mortgage brokers have previously reported a surge in applications from prospective buyers using the guarantee, which led to long processing delays.
Westpac declined to specify the number or value of applications but advised brokers that applications would take two weeks to process.
The 5% guarantee slashed the deposit requirements for a loan, reducing the savings wait time for many first-time homeowners.
The splash of new owner-occupiers contrasts with a market that has otherwise been dominated by investors, many of whom have used equity in their existing housing portfolios to outbid prospective first home buyers at auctions.
Westpac’s new lending to first home buyers had been going backwards, amounting to just $12bn in the 12 months before the expansion of the guarantee, down from $14bn in the previous year.
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Investor lending accounted for most of the growth in the bank’s lending over the same period, rising nearly $8bn to $44bn over the same period, while other mortgages rose about $4bn.
House prices have been helped by the Reserve Bank’s decision to cut the official cash rate on three occasions this year to 3.6%, fuelling national home lending and house price growth, which Westpac predicted would continue to accelerate over the next 12 months.
Lower interest rates have also helped more mortgage holders get on top of their repayments. The bank reported its delinquency rate for Australian home loans more than 90 days behind fell to 0.73%, from 1.12% a year ago.
Hopes of further interest rate relief were recently dashed amid signs of rising inflation.
Investors are still very active in the property market, with national data showing new loans to investors in September accelerating at their fastest monthly pace in more than a decade.
The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority on Friday said it was carefully monitoring whether falling interest rates led to riskier lending. It was discussing limits on new investor, interest-only or small-deposit loans.
The Westpac chief executive, Anthony Miller, said the bank planned to fight for more of the investor market, while acknowledging it faced risks if it went “too far, too fast”.
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Flexible work
Miller stood firm on Monday on the organisation’s work-from-home position in the wake of a precedent-setting Fair Work Commission ruling that overturned an order from the bank for one of its employees to attend a corporate office two days a week.
“No, I don’t feel the need to change that particular setting,” Miller said.
“We have one of the most flexible work-from-home … positions in the marketplace.”
Miller said the bank was reflecting on its response to the decision and would decide on its next step within the next two weeks.
Westpac updated its sustainability report to show it has closed funding avenues available to thermal coalminers, which traditionally rely on banks for direct finance, or by raising money through the issuing of bonds.
Westpac’s report said it had “reduced to zero our corporate lending to institutional thermal coalmining customers” and no longer provided bond facilitation for customers that derived significant revenue from thermal coalmining. Thermal coal is burnt to produce electricity.
While some Australian financiers have ruled out direct loans to thermal coalmines, they have left indirect financing avenues open through bond facilitation.
Kyle Robertson, head of research at activist group Market Forces, said while Westpac had officially exited all lending to companies mining coal for power, it continued to lend significant sums to the oil and gas extraction sector.
The bank reported a 2% slide in annual profit to $6.9bn at its full-year results, down from $7.1bn a year ago.
It will pay a full-year dividend of $1.53 per share.