Western Australia · First home buyers
First Home Owner Grant WA
WA pays first home buyers $10,000 on new homes worth up to $800,000 in Perth and the south, or $1,000,000 north of the 26th parallel.
WA Act and revenue office read · verified against the official sources.
Your tally
First Home Owner Grant
$10,000
Eligible on these answers: $10,000 in Western Australia. Move in within 12 months of completion and live there 6 months in a row. Not asked here: your age (18 or over) and any earlier grant, or first home owner rate of duty, anywhere in Australia.
Grant $10,000Stamp duty saved $16,815
How it’s worked out
As a first home buyer, if you qualify: $8,075 on the home, $16,815 less than another owner-occupier pays.
Apply to WA Department of Treasury and Finance within 12 months of completion. The duty concession is a separate application.
Grant rules read from each state’s Act and revenue office, checked 2026-10-04; stamp duty at the 2026–27 schedules. General information only. The revenue office decides eligibility, and the duty concession has its own tests.
| Amount | $10,000, or the price if lower |
|---|---|
| Value cap | $800,000, or $1,000,000 north of the 26th parallel (land included) |
| New homes only | Yes: built new, off the plan or substantially renovated, never lived in |
| Who qualifies | 18 or over, at least one of you an Australian citizen or permanent resident, no earlier grant or first home owner rate of duty, anywhere in Australia. Not lived 6 months in a row in a home you owned — or at all before July 2004, and no home owned before 1 July 2000. |
| Living there | 6 months in a row, moving in within 12 months of completion |
| Applying | To WA Department of Treasury and Finance, within 12 months of completion (usually settlement, or the handover of the keys for a build) |
The grant goes to a first home buyer who buys or builds a new home under the value cap, and the cap rose to $800,000 across Perth and the south for contracts from 7 May 2026. The calculator above checks yours, and shows the first home owner rate of duty beside it.
$10,000, new homes only, under a cap that moved in May
The grant is a one-off $10,000, or the price if that is lower, and it is paid only on a new home: one bought new or substantially renovated, built under a contract with a builder, or built by you as an owner-builder. A movable building counts as an owner-builder home, and Revenue Ruling FHOG 5 sets out how a modular home is treated. An established home does not qualify.
The cap is what changed in 2026. For a contract signed from 7 May 2026 the total value can be no more than $800,000 for a home south of the 26th parallel, up from $750,000, and no more than $1,000,000 north of it. The line runs far north of Perth, so every metropolitan suburb is on the $800,000 side. The Act says “less than or equal to”, so a home at exactly $800,000 still qualifies.
What WA counts as the value
For a purchase, the higher of the price and the home’s value on the contract date. For a building contract, the contract price including variations, plus the land, with the land valued at the higher of what you paid and what it is worth. An owner-builder’s home and land are valued when the home is finished. Treasury can take the price you paid for the land as its value if you bought it within 12 months of signing the building contract.
Variations are where builds slip over the line: the build is valued with its variations, so upgrades agreed after signing count against the cap as surely as the original contract does.
The 1 July 2004 rule, and the other ways to be ruled out
You and your partner are out if either of you owned residential property in Australia before 1 July 2000. After that, owning a home is not the problem; living in it is. Live in a home you owned for six continuous months and you are out. Live in it at all before 1 July 2004, even for a week, and you are out too, a cut-off no other state uses. An investment property you never lived in does not stop you.
WA’s Act looks at property in WA and in the other states and territories, so a home owned overseas is not counted. Anyone who has already had a grant, or a first home owner rate of duty, in any state is out.
The grant and the first home owner rate of duty
The two are tied together in WA more tightly than anywhere else. To get the first home owner rate of duty you must meet the grant’s eligibility criteria even where no grant is payable — because the home is established or, for contracts from 7 May 2026, because it is over the grant cap. So the ownership rules above decide your duty as well as your grant.
The rate itself: no duty on a home to $600,000, then a concession that runs out at $800,000; no duty on vacant land to $450,000, running out at $550,000. These thresholds run under a gazetted notice while the Bill that sets them passes Parliament, which is why the Duties Act itself still shows the old ones. The WA stamp duty calculator has the full schedule.
Worked through with the calculator’s opening figures: a $650,000 new home in Perth, signed on 4 October 2026, gets the $10,000 grant, and a first home buyer pays $8,075 in duty instead of $24,890. That is $26,815 of help in all, and 63% of it comes from the duty side.
Living there, and applying
Each applicant must live in the home as their principal place of residence for six continuous months, starting within 12 months of completion. If you cannot meet that, Treasury says to notify it within 30 days, and the Commissioner can reduce the period, extend the time to move in or exempt one of two joint buyers.
Apply within 12 months of completion: usually settlement for a purchase, and for a building contract the day the home is ready to live in, usually when the builder hands over the keys. There are no income or assets tests.
Comparing states, or not sure this is the right one? The First Home Owner Grant in every state sets all eight side by side.
Frequently asked questions
Is the WA grant the same in Perth and the regions?
I signed in April 2026. Which cap applies to me?
Can I get the grant on a house-and-land package?
I co-own a unit I have never lived in. Can I still get it?
Can I rent the home out after I get the grant?
Keep tallying
Sources
- First Home Owner Grant Act 2000 (WA), read 4 October 2026.
- WA Department of Treasury and Finance — About the first home owner grant, read 4 October 2026.