First home buyers were among the big winners this year, especially those looking to build or to purchase a newly-built house.

The extension of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme to June 2021 will provide 10,000 more applicants with access to a home sooner.

The scheme allows eligible first-time buyers to purchase a home with a deposit as little as five per cent.

Typically, buyers with less than a 20 per cent deposit need to pay lenders mortgage insurance, but those using scheme are exempt - something Wagga builder Wayne Carter described as "a great help".

"People rarely have to use the insurance, so this is such a help in giving people that extra bit of money to avoid having to pay the mortgage insurance," Mr Carter said.

It comes off the back of the HomeBuilder scheme which was introduced in June and provided owner-occupiers with up to $25,000 to build or renovate.

Since the initiative was introduced, Mr Carter said he had noticed a sizable increase to his work around Wagga.

"Rarely have I had to say there's been an immediate influx of work after grants [have been announced]," he said. "We've always been busy in Wagga but now we're busier. COVID really didn't stifle us at all."

The reason for this almost overnight increase, Mr Carter said, is the grant restrictions fitting in with "what Wagga wants".

"There's not been so much of the renovations because not many in Wagga reach over [the required] $150,000 to qualify," he said.

"But new homes with values of $750,000 that fits hand-in-glove here. That's the bulk of our work in Wagga."

As for whether he expects the extension of the deposit scheme to further increase the workload, Mr Carter said "it's hard to predict".

"Our conundrum will be having enough land to build on," he said.

"It's alright to want to build a house, but if you don't have the land ready that puts the brakes on.

"You have to have the mechanics in place to satisfy the demand when the demand grows."