Am I Eligible for the First Home Owner Grant
First Home Owner Grant General Information
The First Home Owner Grant Scheme has been established to assist first home owners to purchase or build a new home by offering a $15,000 grant. FHOG (New Homes) will apply to eligible transaction, where the transaction commencement date (contract date) is on or after 1 October 2012. The FHOG (New Homes) grant will reduce to $10,000 on 1 January 2016 for eligible transactions which have a commencement date (contract date) on or after 1 January 2016.
Broad principles of the grant are:
- Eligible applicants must be a natural person (not a company) who is an Australian citizen or permanent resident building their first home in Australia
- To qualify, neither the applicant nor their spouse (or defacto) can have previously owned a home, either jointly or separately.
- Joint applicants will be restricted to a single application for a single property. Only one payment will be granted.
If you are building your first home, you may be eligible for further benefits under the First Home Owner Grant Scheme and the First Home Plus Scheme. The assistance available to you depends on which state or territory you live in.
Further information is available at these websites:
General Information: www.firsthome.gov.au
New South Wales – www.osr.nsw.gov.au
Queensland – www.osr.qld.gov.au
Tasmania – www.tenders.tas.gov.au
South Australia – www.revenuesa.sa.gov.au
Western Australia – www.dtf.wa.gov.au
Australian Capital Territory – www.revenue.act.gov.au
Victoria – www.sro.vic.gov.au
Northern Territory – www.nt.gov.au
Please note – this information was correct as of 1 November 2013.
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Am I eligible for a First Home Owner Grant (FHOG)?
What are the benefits of being a first home buyer?
As a first-home buyer, navigating the mortgage maze can seem scary. It is always a good idea to ask questions and seek as much advice as you can. At Mortgage House, our expert lenders are on hand when you want them to be, and can guide you through the whole process. You can call them, or organise the best time for them to call you. One of our key focusses is to provide you with the information and resources you need to make it as easy as possible for you to find a suitable loan. We don’t want you to leave any stone unturned. Buying your first home is a big step. It is likely to be the most expensive thing you have ever bought, and that can come with some trepidation, especially around whether you can afford the loan repayments and what happens if you default. However, buying a home, especially your first, can have a lot of benefits. If you are paying rent, you are simply paying off someone else’s mortgage, and not getting any financial benefit yourself. When you buy a home you have an asset, an asset that can grow in value and that you can use as financial leverage in the future. And repaying a mortgage over time can help your credit rating, which can open a lot of other doors down the track when you need it.
What are my home loan options?
On top of finding out about the First Home Owners Grant in your state, there are lots of other things to discover about how home loans work. Firstly, get to know the terminology involved. That can be handy as you navigate through all the information. Secondly, understand all the calculations you may need to make, such as how much stamp duty you may have to pay, and the size of deposit you will need. Take a close look at your budget and work out a comfortable repayment figure, then see how that translates into mortgage size. A great place to start when looking at your loan options is whether or not you want a fixed or variable interest rate. A variable rate loan means your interest rate is likely to rise and fall over the life of your loan, based on a number of external and internal factors. With fixed-rate loans, your interest rate, and therefore the repayments, will stay the same for an agreed period, usually between 1 and 10 years. It is up to you which one you choose. Variable rates can be lower, but the security of knowing exactly what your repayments will be over a set time can be a level of security first-home-buyers appreciate. Download our First Home Buyers Guide to find out more.
How can a mortgage calculator help me find my first home loan?
Navigating the world of home loans for the first time can be daunting, and it can be important to have somewhere to go to get an indication of how much you may be able to borrow, and what your repayment options may be. Our mortgage calculators can do this, and more. They can also help you budget for a deposit or repayment, let you know how much stamp duty you will pay when you buy a home, and where to look to find the best Mortgage House interest rate.
How do I find the right home loan?
Looking for the right home loan for you and your family can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. There are a lot of options available, and they all include a range of features that can be confusing. At Mortgage House we want to make the whole process as easy as we can. Click on our Frequently Asked Questions page to see a list of the most common queries first-home buyers have. When you are ready to look at the range of option Mortgage House offers, you can compare them in detail here, to give you a clearer option of which home loan can help you realise your property dreams.