What Is a First Home Owners Grant?

Buying your first home can be a time of excitement but also one that can be quite worrying as there is a lot of expense that is involved. What Is a First Home Owners Grant?

Many first-time buyers find it difficult to get on the property ladder, but first-time buyers in Australia are now able to take advantage of the first home owners grant which was introduced on 1 July 2000. The first home owners grant can be up to $14,000 if you are a first time buyer who wants to buy a house has already been built or up to $21,000 if you are building your own home or buying a new build home. However these rates do vary that is a good idea to check with your local state revenue office to see what the latest rates are.

Obviously the first home owners grant is a massive help to anyone who is looking to buy their own home but needs a little extra capital to help them to do so. For instance if you are eligible a first home owners grant you can use this to pay off part of the value of your home, which will then make your monthly mortgage repayments quite a bit smaller. Or you could use it to go towards other costs involved with your new home such as building inspections, legal fees, stamp duty or any other costs incurred with buying your new home.

In order to be eligible for one of the first home owners grant payments you need to have never applied for a first home owners grant previously. You also need to prove that neither you nor anyone else who is applying for a first home owners grant has ever owned a home before, as these payments are only available for first home owners. In addition at least one of the owners who is applying for a first home owners grant needs to be a natural Australian citizen otherwise the application will be turned down as you would not meet the eligibility criteria.

To apply for a first home owners grant you will need to fill in an application form and this needs to be sent back to the state revenue office in which you are planning on buying your new first home. It is also a good idea to know that a first home owners grant can be applied for for any type of dwelling which is classed as a residence that this can be a flat, a townhouse, a duplex or a single dwelling etc. However to meet the criteria for a first home owners grant the dwelling must be connected via land to sewerage and water services otherwise it will not be eligible for the grant. This means that houseboats and caravans are excluded from the first home owners grant scheme. So if you are a first time buyer that could do with a hand and who is an Australian citizen you should check out the first home owners grant scheme and apply for your one-off payment.

From October 1st 2009 the First Home Owners Grant is reduced to $10,500 for those buying an existing home, and $14,000 for those building or buying a new home. Then from December 31 it will be cut back to the original $7,000 for both categories.

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