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According to a 2022 Government report, Australian residential property prices rose by 23.7% between December 2020 to December 2021. Brisbane experienced the third-largest percentage increase among Australian capital cities (behind Hobart and Canberra), with 12-month property prices growing by 27.8%.
With these dramatic yearly residential price increases, rising interest rates and a growing cost of living, first home buyers in Queensland face a tough challenge in entering the property market. Luckily, the Queensland Government have introduced first home buyer grants and concessions to help you get your dream home sooner.
On this page, Joust provides the latest (2022) information grant and concession available to you as a first home buyer in Queensland to help you secure a spot in the property market.
If you're a first home buyer in Queensland, there are 3 specific Government grants available to help your property purchase:
To access these grants, you must meet certain terms and conditions on your home purchase as well as fulfil the eligibility criteria.
The First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) is a Government grant that helps Australians purchase their property by contributing a small cash amount to their deposit. Although the initiative is nationwide, specific terms and conditions change between Australian States and Territories.
In Queensland, as a first home buyer, you can access a $15,000 one-off cash handout through FHOG to purchase or build a new house, unit, or townhouse. You can use this handout for any cost related to your new house, such as strata, stamp duty, legal fees or deposits.
The First Home Owners Grant Queensland has a specific set of terms and conditions that you must follow to receive payment. According to the Queensland Government, you qualify for the FHOG payment if you buy or build a property valued at less than $750,000 (including land value).
Additionally, the property must be new, meaning that it has never been occupied or sold as a residence in the past. An exception is if the property has been substantially renovated and hasn't been occupied or sold since the finished construction date. A final important note is that the $15,000 payment is only available for contracts signed from 1st July 2018 onwards.
Furthermore, the FHOG QLD is limited to one payment per household. This means that partners buying a home together will qualify for just one $15,000 payment.
If you have met the terms and conditions of your property purchase, you must also meet the eligibility requirements set by the Queensland Government to access the payment.
To be eligible for FHOG:
The QLD has developed a useful tool to help determine if you're eligible for the grant; you can access this here.
You have precisely 1 year from the date of your title registration or date of construction completion to apply for the FHOG in Queensland. The home owners grant application process first requires you to fill out this form, which is then submitted through one of the two possible avenues:
An important consideration is that if you submit your application electronically, you should ensure that the scanned document is legible, signed and witnessed. Additionally, severe fines and penalties apply if you provide misleading information on your application, so it's best to be truthful!
The First Home Concession is a grant that waives stamp duty (transfer duty) costs for first home owners in Queensland. Stamp duty is a Government tax calculated on land purchases that can often cost home buyers tens of thousands of dollars. Consequently, the State Government introduced the concession to help people enter the property market with greater ease and less debt.
FIND OUT HOW MUCH YOU COULD SAVE ON STAMP DUTY WITH OUR CALCULATOR.
There is a set of certain terms, conditions and eligibility requirements that you must meet to avoid paying stamp duty. To qualify for QLD stamp duty concessions, your first home must be valued at less than $550,000. According to our calculations, you could save up to $16,000 in stamp duty costs thanks to the Queensland First Home Concession.
However, unlike FHOG, the First Home Concession applies to either new or existing homes and includes foreign buyers.
To access the First Home Concession, you must:
If you're unsure if you meet these eligibility requirements, this resource can help determine whether you qualify for the First Home Concession or not.
Queensland first home owners can apply for a concession on stamp duty by lodging the following forms when submitting their contract and valuation for stamping:
When submitting your documents for stamping, you must include a cover letter with your name, address, email and mobile number so that the Queensland Revenue Office can confirm that they've received the application.
The First Home Vacant Land Concession is another stamp duty waiver but specifically applies to situations where you buy vacant land to build your first property. This means that you must intend to build a primary residence property when purchasing vacant land to access the concession.
The First Home Vacant Land Concession is available for anything purchasing an empty land slot valued at less than $400,000. In return, Joust calculates that this could save you approximately $7,000 in stamp duty fees.
Another key term of the stamp duty concession is that the vacant land must not host any other building (or part of the building).
To be eligible for the First Home Vacant Land Concession, you must:
Similar to the First Home Concession, you can apply for the First Home Vacant Land Concession by submitting the necessary documentation to the Queensland Revenue Office.
These forms include:
Typically, these forms are included with your contract and valuation when submitted to the Revenue Office for stamping. Another important consideration is to include a cover letter with your relevant contact information (name, address, email, phone), so the Revenue Office can confirm they have received the application.
Outside of these grants, first home buyers in Queensland can also apply for other general Government benefits to help secure their homes.
The Regional Home Building Boost Grant is an initiative available to anyone looking to build a new house, unit or townhouse located in regional Queensland with a total land value under $750,000. If successful, you can claim a $5,000 one-off payment following the completion of your purchase or construction.
The Queensland Government introduced the initiative to inject more cash into the State's regional housing sector, which has suffered from COVID-19.
An important consideration is that you can apply for both the Queensland First Home Owners Grant AND the Regional Home Building Boost Grant. Consequently, if you're eligible for both grants, you could receive up to $20,000 in payments from the Queensland Government.
The Australian government launched the First Home Super Saver Scheme in the 2017-2018 Federal Budget (FHSSS). This project was created by the government to assist you in saving for a deposit faster by allowing you to contribute to your super fund, which may then be withdrawn to help fund your house purchase.
This plan does, however, have several limitations:
The New Home Guarantee, formerly known as the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, allows first-time buyers to receive a mortgage with just a 5% down payment. As a result, the Australian government covers the remaining 15% of the deposit and assists first-time house purchasers in avoiding LMI.
The plan has a cap of 10,000 slots per year and is only available through 27 lenders.
The Family Home Guarantee aims to assist struggling single parents in obtaining a loan with only a 2% deposit. As a result, the government guarantees the remaining 18% of the deposit, making it simpler for single parents to get loans and avoid Lender's Mortgage Insurance.
In the most recent Federal Budget, the government announced that the initiative would be extended for an additional three years, offering a total of 15,000 positions.
If you're not from Queensland, be sure to check out our different State and Territory-specific grant breakdowns:
No matter what grant you apply for, you will still need to get approved for your home loan. Joust eliminates the stress first homeowners have when looking for the best lender with Instant Match.
Our online home loans service helps connect lenders with products that suit your borrowing capacity and personal financial needs. Make use of the digital revolution and crawl the home loan market from the comfort of your home!
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