You'd think having $50,000 saved would make this question fairly easy to answer.
It doesn't.
Depending on how you buy, $50,000 could be a 20% deposit on a $250,000 property, a 10% deposit on a $500,000 property or a 5% deposit on a $1 million property.
Three very different houses.
The bigger question is how much a bank will actually lend you.
Imagine two buyers who have both managed to save $50,000.
One is looking at homes around $450,000.
The other is convinced they can buy something close to $900,000.
Neither is necessarily wrong.
Their deposits are identical, but their borrowing positions are not.
The obvious calculation is the deposit percentage.
A $50,000 deposit is 20% of a $250,000 property, 10% of a $500,000 property and 5% of a $1 million property.
That last number can be particularly tempting. An eligible first-home buyer using the Australian Government's 5% Deposit Scheme could potentially buy a property worth up to $1.5 million in some locations. The scheme has location-specific price caps.
But the deposit is only half the battle.
The mortgage still has to be repaid.
Your deposit is only one part of the equation
This is where the two buyers start to look very different.
One might have a solid income, few existing debts and relatively low ongoing commitments.
The other might also have managed to save $50,000, despite a car loan, credit card and higher household expenses.
A lender looks at all of that when working out how much it is prepared to lend.
Income matters. Existing debts matter. Living expenses matter. So does the lender's assessment of whether you could keep making the repayments if rates were higher.
A deposit calculator can't tell you any of that.
Your $50k isn't necessarily all deposit
There's another trap in saying, "I've got a $50,000 deposit."
If that's all the cash you have, some of it may need to cover stamp duty, conveyancing or legal costs, inspections and other expenses involved in buying a home.
So the calculation isn't always:
$50,000 รท 10% = $500,000.
First you need to know how much you can borrow.
Then you need to know how much of your savings can actually go towards the purchase.
What if you only need a 5% deposit?
For some first-home buyers, $50,000 can go a lot further.
The Australian Government's 5% Deposit Scheme allows eligible first-home buyers to purchase with a minimum 5% deposit, without LMI under the scheme.
At 5%, $50,000 represents a $1 million property.
That doesn't mean a lender will automatically lend you $950,000.
You'll still need to meet the lender's credit and serviceability requirements, and the property needs to fall within the relevant price cap.
The scheme can make the upfront hurdle smaller. It doesn't change how the lender assesses the mortgage.
The bank isn't just looking at today's repayment
Lenders also have to assess whether you could continue servicing the loan if interest rates rise.
APRA's mortgage serviceability buffer remains 3 percentage points.
That means the lender isn't simply looking at whether today's repayment fits your budget. The loan is tested against a higher assessment rate as well.
APRA also limits the proportion of new owner-occupier and investment lending that banks can provide to borrowers with debt six times their income or more. The limit is 20% of new lending in each category.
That doesn't mean every borrower above that level is automatically rejected. It does mean borrowing capacity can't be judged by the deposit sitting in your savings account.
So how much house can $50k actually buy?
The deposit maths is straightforward:
| Deposit position | Theoretical property price |
|---|---|
| 20% deposit | $250,000 |
| 10% deposit | $500,000 |
| 5% deposit | $1,000,000 |
Those are simple calculations. They're not borrowing-capacity figures.
Someone with $50,000 saved who can comfortably support a $450,000 mortgage is in a very different position from someone with the same savings who qualifies for a $300,000 mortgage.
The savings are identical. The mortgage isn't.
And that's what ultimately determines whether a property is within reach.
There's one more number worth paying attention to: the amount you can comfortably repay.
The most a bank will lend isn't necessarily the most you should spend.
A mortgage has to fit around the rest of your life. Interest rates can change. Household expenses can rise. Jobs change. Families grow.
Being approved for a loan is one thing.
Being comfortable with it is another.
Your $50,000 is the starting point
A $50,000 deposit doesn't tell you what house you can afford.
It tells you that you're ready to start working it out.
The real number is the mortgage you can carry comfortably, not the deposit you can scrape together.