AffordAssist’s 0% interest deferred deposit keeps buyers on track to own 100% of the property, while Help to Buy’s 2% shared‑equity scheme can leave buyers permanently sharing 30–40% of their home’s value with the government – unless they later find a way to buy that stake back.
Key differences at a glance
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Ownership: AffordAssist – 100% buyer ownership; Help to Buy – government owns a share of your home.
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Equity growth: AffordAssist – all growth stays with you; Help to Buy – growth is shared.
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Exit/flexibility: AffordAssist – designed around a clear 5‑year exit; Help to Buy – exit depends on income limits, price caps and paying out the equity share.
How AffordAssist works
AffordAssist: 0% interest, no shared equity, buyer on title for 100% from day one.
The buyer typically contributes 1–2% (or more) in cash, the lender provides up to about 90% LVR, and the vendor defers all or part of the standard 10% deposit under a Deferred Deposit Agreement, interest‑free, usually over 60 months. The buyer is on title for 100% from day one and simply pays down that deferred 10% over five years alongside the home loan.
How Help to Buy works
Help to Buy: 2% deposit, 30–40% shared equity that tracks future property value.
The buyer provides a minimum 2% deposit, the bank lends the balance of the purchase price after the government’s 30–40% equity contribution, and the Commonwealth holds that percentage as a true equity share in the property, not a separate loan. There is no interest on the government’s share, but it is repaid as a matching percentage of the property’s value when the buyer makes voluntary equity repayments or sells.
Who ends up owning what? The crucial difference is who owns the future growth in the property.
With AffordAssist, the end game is very simple: once the deferred deposit is repaid (typically over five years at 0% interest), there is no continuing third‑party interest in the property and all future growth belongs to the owner. This structure is explicitly framed as “no shared equity, 0% interest, no compounding” while still giving lenders a compliant way to treat the deferred amount as part of the deposit.
Under Help to Buy, the government’s 30–40% share tracks the property’s value for the life of the arrangement, so if the home doubles in value, the dollar amount needed to buy back that stake roughly doubles too. Buyers can chip away at the government share over time or clear it on sale/refinance, but unless they do, they will never truly “own it all”, and part of the capital gain will always be surrendered.
“Exit” and future flexibility
AffordAssist: the risk lens is on “capacity to settle” and “the exit” – the arrangement is designed so that after about five years the buyer has both paid out the deferred deposit and benefited from faster equity build because the core mortgage is smaller than under a high‑LVR structure. This can reduce the risk of negative equity, improve refinance options, and avoid the trap of carrying an extra interest‑bearing facility or giving away upside.
Help to Buy: low entry costs are traded for a more complex and potentially expensive exit; income thresholds, property price caps and rules around renovations mean there are more “strings attached” when life changes or when an owner wants to upgrade, refinance or extract equity. Repaying 30–40% of the future value can significantly blunt the equity a household can roll into their next home, which is exactly the concern you flagged in your article.
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