First Home Buyers

Whether you’re buying a house and land package or building with a renowned home builder like Hallmark Homes, the First Home Owner Scheme grants you $30,000 towards buying or building your new home. Unlike some other grants, the amount the scheme provides doesn’t vary based on eligibility or other factors – if you’re eligible and receive approval, you’ll receive the full $30,000.

As with all grants and schemes that you may be eligible for, including the First Home Guarantee Scheme, Family Home Guarantee and First Home Vacant Land Concession, there are a few eligibility requirements that you’ll need to meet. For the First Home Owner Grant, these requirements are:

• You must be aged 18 years or older and a natural person (not a company or trust)

• You (or your partner) must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident

• You (or your partner) must not have previously received a First Home Owner Grant in Australia

• You (or your partner) must not have previously owned property in Australia that you lived in

If you have owned an investment property but not lived in it, you may still be eligible for the First Home Owner Grant in Queensland. Additionally, within 1 year – of receiving the final inspection certificate if you’re building or a settlement if buying a house and land package – you must move into your new home as your principal place of residence and live there continuously for 6 months.

If you’re building a home, buying ‘off the plan’ or buying a brand new home that’s never been lived in and the total value of the land, build and extras (e.g., landscaping, fences, solar, etc.) is under $750,000, you may have met the main property criteria to be eligible for the First Home Owners Grant.

In greater detail, this means:

• Building a home – with a home builder like Hallmark Homes or as an owner-builder

• Buying a home – this would either be ‘off the plan’ or a ‘house and land package’

• Buying a ‘substantially renovated’ home – this doesn’t cover renovations or cosmetic work

Building a new home or buying a house and land package – Hallmark Homes has house and land packages across the most in-demand areas of South East Queensland – are the most common ways of accessing the scheme.

The total purchase price of the property you purchase must be less than $750,000, which means:

• Cost of land + the building contract + any additional construction costs (this includes features and items such as landscaping, fence, solar panels and additional inclusions).

While you may meet the above eligibility criteria, there may be circumstances that may make you ineligible to access the scheme. These include:

• You or your partner don’t meet the age or citizenship/residency requirements

• Your new property (including home, land and extras) exceeds the $750,000 limit

• You enter into an arrangement to get the Grant, but don’t use it to buy your new home

• You don’t move into the home within 12 months or live in the home for less than 6 months

• You held an interest in residential property prior to 1 July 2000 (regardless of how the property was used)

• You build or buy your new home with financial assistance from a relative who isn’t eligible for the Grant and who will also stay in the home often or for long periods of time

Also, it’s important to understand that the Queensland Office of State Revenue regularly audits grant applications to ensure that successful applicants comply with their requirements. This means that if you’ve failed to comply with the requirements to receive the grant, you’ll need to repay the grant in full, along with any fines or penalties imposed on you by the Office.

Yes, the QLD stamp duty concession for first-home buyers helps eligible first-home buyers to buy their first home by providing a partial or complete exemption from stamp duty. The amount you can save on stamp duty in Queensland depends on the value of the property, with properties with a dutiable value of $500,000 or less exempt from stamp duty – this full exemption saves you around $8,750 – while properties valued from $500,001 to $549,999 are eligible for concessional rates.