Buying your first home comes down to two questions: how much can you borrow, and where will the deposit come from? A broker can work out your borrowing capacity. If you're short on deposit, one option is a family guarantee, where your parents let you use equity in their property as extra security instead of giving you cash. First home buyers can also look at the government's 5% Deposit Scheme (First Home Guarantee), which lets you buy with a 5% deposit and no lenders mortgage insurance.

In this video, McKern financial adviser Shahin Tehrani explains why parents are far more likely to agree to a guarantee than a cash gift, how estate planning and insurance can protect them, and why the guarantee doesn't have to last the whole loan: once your property has grown in value or the debt has come down, you can get a valuation and ask the lender to release it.

In this video

0:00 How much can you borrow?

0:26 Where will the deposit come from?

1:40 Asking parents for a guarantee

2:58 Getting the guarantee released

General information only, not personal advice.