Step 1 – know your finances, that is your incomings (income) and outgoings (expenses). Your Money Position may assist with this.
Step 2 – Know what sort of home loan suits your needs. As discussed here , there are different types of home loans depending on your circumstances and risk appetite.
Step 3 – work out how much you can borrow. There are plenty of great calculators out there that can help you with this. I found NAB calculators to be the easiest to use.
Step 4 – With this in mind, I would take note of the monthly repayments required – and add a buffer to these to allow for interest rates to rise (we haven’t been in such a low interest rate environment for ~50 years). Use the repayments calculated and shown instep #3, otherwise CBA has a good tool here.
Separate from home loan repayments there are other costs to be aware of, including home, building and contents insurance; Utilities (water, electricity and gas) and Council Rates.