Average Home Loan Deposit Exceeds $100,000
The barrier for first home buyers tops six figures.
By Terry Christodoulou
Tue, Apr 13, 2021 11:58am
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As record-low borrowing costs, stimulus payments and low stock levels send home prices to unprecedented heights, the average deposit required by first home buyers has topped $100,000.
Recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data has revealed the national average deposit needed to secure a mortgage is no $106,743, a 16% increase from January 2019, and the first time in Australia’s history the average deposit has exceeded $100,000.
The ACT had the largest house deposit increase since 2019, with the upfront amount required surging by 24 per cent to 117,790. NSW was just 1% behind at 23% for an average of $128,469.
The average deposit in Tasmania has climbed by 17% to $81,438 while Queensland (13%) and Western Australia (14%) sit at $95,784 and $92,784 respectively.
South Australia is the only capital city offering stable first home buying conditions with an 8% increase since 2019 to $85,710.
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The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.
By Liz Lucking
Mon, Jul 13, 2026 2 min
2 min
Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.
The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.
“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”
Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.
The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”
Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.
The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.
The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.
The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”
The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”
The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”
