First Home Buyer Grant Rules
The First Home Buyer Grant is an Australian Government initiative to compensate first home buyers from the negative effects of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). It gives eligible first home buyers throughout Australia a $7,000 grant towards the costs involved in financing a home for the first time.
The grant is administered by the various state and territory governments who also offer a variety of other incentives, ranging from concessions and exemptions off stamp duty costs and their own grant schemes to cheap government sponsored loans that help pay deposits, ancillary costs and even in some cases the cost of whitegoods.
Because the different states and territories administer the First Home Buyer Grant the rules governing its operation can differ in different precincts.
It pays to be aware of any differences in the rules as there are severe penalties imposed on applicants who mislead whether on purpose or not. We have listed the various differences here for your information.
First Home Buyer Grant Rules – Individuals.
The definition of an individual is not as clear as it might seem to be at first glance. It is common between all states and territories to define an individual as a ‘natural’ person. That is a person who is not a company or a trust, but although this is generally true, there are important exemptions such as:
- A trustee or
- A beneficiary of a property holding trust
- A person acting as a trustee for a legally disabled person.
First home Buyer Grant Rules – Interested parties.
All state and territory governments agree that an applicant can not “go it alone’ if sharing interest in the property with other applicants:
- Victorian rules state that ‘all persons who are or will be owners must be applicants’.
- Queensland requires, ‘each person who owns any part of the house must be an applicant’.
- South Australia rules call for, ‘everyone who will be an owner on completion of the transaction is considered an applicant’.
These states effectively rule out a child taking a share in the parents home when he or she turns 18 because the parents would have to be listed as applicants and they would not be eligible for other obvious reasons.
- Tasmania however goes ahead and makes allowances for parents to assist their children in this manner and allows the child to become an applicant even with mum and dad’s names on the title document alongside their own.
- ACT and Tasmanian rules make room for a ’shared equity partner’ who is not an applicant as long as the shared equity partners interest does not exceed 50% of the property value.
- NSW rules require all people with a ‘relevant interest’ in the property must also be co-applicants.
First Home Buyer Grant Rules – Residences.
Different state and territory rules look at what is considered a residence in a different light.
All agree with the following as being residences under their respective regulations:
- house
- unit
- flat
- townhouse
- apartment or a fixed but movable home.
All must be fixed to the ground which rules out caravans but…
- NSW allows converted warehouses to be included.
- Tasmania makes allowances for relocatable buildings and demountables to be included.
- Both Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory allow for ’substantially renovated’ buildings to be regarded as residences, as long as the renovations were of such magnitude that the renovated home was in fact a new home, in all respects, and that the purchaser was the first to reside in the newly renovated residence.
First Home Buyer Grant Rules – Age.
At first glance it seems obvious that all state and territory governments agree that 18 is the age when a first home buyer can first make application for the grant.
- In the ACT and Victoria however an applicant can be exempted from this requirement by the Commissioner.
- The Northern Territory rules state that the applicant must be 18, ‘or making application with someone who is 18′.
Related posts:
- Check State Rules for First Home Grants
- First Home Buyer Grant Application
- Eligibility Criteria First Home Owner Grant (NT)
- Eligibility for first home buyers grant
- First Home Buyers Grant Northern Territory (NT)
- First Home Owners Grant (ACT)
- Frequently Asked Questions: First Home Owner Grant
- First Home Buyers Grant WA
- First Home Owners Grant Eligibility Penalties NSW
- First Home Buyers Grant Queensland (QLD)
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