What stays national. A broker in Joondalup works under the same federal credit law as one in Hobart, with the same best interests duty, Credit Guide and register checks, and our main mortgage broker page walks through them. The Sydney broker page shows how far the state layer can differ. In WA that layer is RevenueWA's duty and grant settings, a home lender set up as a WA Government initiative with its own broker channel, and a contract process built on the Offer and Acceptance.
First home duty and the grant. RevenueWA's fact sheet, current at 28 July 2026, sets the first home owner rate for transactions entered into on or after 7 May 2026: no duty on a new or established home valued up to $600,000, and a concessional rate up to $800,000, wherever it is in WA. Vacant land is duty-free up to $450,000, with the concession running to $550,000. From 21 March 2025 until then, the home thresholds were $500,000, then $700,000 in the Metropolitan and Peel regions or $750,000 outside them, and the rate follows the date the agreement was entered into, not settlement. Eligibility still follows the First Home Owner Grant Act, but the duty rate is no longer tied to the grant's value cap. The grant is up to $10,000 for a new home, capped for transactions from 7 May 2026 at $800,000 south of the 26th parallel and $1,000,000 north of it, and each applicant must live there for at least six continuous months starting within 12 months of completion. Two details are worth a line on a broker's site: the application form can be lodged with an approved financial institution, so borrowers may ask whether you'll help with it, and a buyer who isn't approved or pre-approved before settlement pays duty at the general rate, then applies for a reassessment and refund once approved. A foreign buyer pays 7% foreign transfer duty even where the first home rate applies. The state's 2026–27 housing taxation package (opens in a new tab) sets out the changes.
Keystart and the federal scheme. Keystart's products include its Low Deposit Home Loan and the Urban Connect Shared Equity and Skilled Start home loans. When it lifted its limits in July 2024 it said property price limits would be reviewed periodically against annualised median house prices from REIWA, with income limits set by what's needed to service them; its home page now cites purchase price limits of up to $860,000, and REIWA notes higher income limits in the Kimberley and Pilbara. Since those figures move, your page is better spent on when you'd look at Keystart and when a bank loan suits, with a link to Keystart's site (opens in a new tab) for the limits. The federal 5% Deposit Scheme goes through a participating lender and has had no income caps since 1 October 2025. Its WA price cap is $850,000 for Perth and regional centres and $600,000 elsewhere, and Housing Australia's postcode search settles which applies.
Offers, finance clauses and settlement. Consumer Protection reminds buyers that WA has no mandatory cooling-off period for real estate contracts. On the Offer and Acceptance, a buyer who names a preferred lender isn't bound if that lender doesn't grant the loan; one who names none must use best efforts with at least one lender and tell the seller or agent immediately when a loan is approved or refused. Consumer Protection advises buyers who aren't suitably qualified lawyers to use a licensed settlement agent or a lawyer, and its settlement guide (opens in a new tab) warns that if the buyer, their settlement agent or their lender can't meet the agreed date, the buyer may pay penalty fees to the seller. For a broker that argues for a pre-approval page you've written, a form that captures the finance date and a short note on working with the buyer's settlement agent. Our Perth real estate page covers the selling agent's side of the O&A.
Perth borrowers, and us. At the 2021 Census, 40.0% of WA households owned their home with a mortgage, against about 35% across Australia. If you see clients in person, name the office and the areas you draw on, whether that's Joondalup and Wanneroo, Midland and the Swan Valley, Cockburn and Rockingham, or Mandurah in the Peel region. We're an Adelaide team on Hutt St and work with Perth businesses by phone and email. Adelaide runs 1.5 hours ahead of Perth, or 2.5 while South Australia is on daylight saving, so we fit calls around your day. We have no WA clients and haven't built a broker's site yet, and we'd rather tell you that now.