More than 100,000 buyers have now taken advantage of the Federal Government’s expanded 5% Deposit Scheme to get into the housing market.

The scheme was expanded a year ago to help all first home buyers, and since then 102,594 buyers have signed up to take part,

That means half of all first home buyers nationally are now using a first home buyer scheme for help to buy their first property, saving thousands in Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI).

Of those who have already purchased their home, 99% are either ahead of their repayment schedule or on track.

Victoria has the highest number of buyers who have signed up in the past 12 months (33,413), followed by New South Wales (28,158) and then Queensland (20,125).

The latest flurry means that since its inception, more than 280,000 first home buyers have accessed the scheme.

Samantha Harvey of Aussie says while the scheme helps those ready to buy with a small deposit, it doesn’t help improve borrowing capacity.

“I’m seeing more interest in the Help to Buy Scheme, as well as more first home buyers looking to purchase jointly with family members. The deposit hurdle might be getting easier but for some buyers borrowing capacity has become the bigger challenge,” she says.