First Home Owner Grant by state

Every state’s grant, side by side

Seven of the eight states and territories pay a grant to first home buyers, and no two of them run it the same way. Enter what you are buying and where in the calculator above, and see the grant, whether you qualify, and the stamp duty concession that sits beside it.

For a contract signed on 4 October 2026. The amount is decided by the contract date everywhere, so a state with a time-limited figure shows when it ends.

• New South Wales

  Grant

  $10,000

  Value cap

  $600,000 to buy, $750,000 to build (land included)

  Live there

  12 months, starting within 12

  Earlier homes

  Not lived 6 months in a row in a home you owned

• Victoria

  Grant

  $10,000

  Value cap

  $750,000 (the purchase price; for a build, the home only, land not added)

  Live there

  12 months, starting within 12

  Earlier homes

  Not lived 6 months in a row in a home you owned

• Queensland

  Grant

  $30,000

  Value cap

  under $750,000 (land included)

  Live there

  6 months, starting within 12

  Earlier homes

  Never lived in a home you owned, even briefly

• Western Australia

  Grant

  $10,000

  Value cap

  $800,000, or $1,000,000 north of the 26th parallel (land included)

  Live there

  6 months, starting within 12

  Earlier homes

  Not lived 6 months in a row in a home you owned — or at all before July 2004

• South Australia

  Grant

  $15,000

  Value cap

  No cap

  Live there

  6 months, starting within 12

  Earlier homes

  Never owned any Australian home

• Tasmania

  Grant

  $20,000 to 30 June 2027 if finished within 24 months (otherwise $10,000), then $10,000

  Value cap

  No cap

  Live there

  6 months, starting within 12

  Earlier homes

  Not lived 6 months in a row in a home you owned

• ACT

  Grant

  None

  Value cap

  —

  Live there

  —

  Earlier homes

  —

• Northern Territory

  Grant

  $50,000 to 30 September 2027, then $10,000

  Value cap

  No cap

  Live there

  12 months, starting within 12

  Earlier homes

  Never lived in a home you owned, even briefly

The ACT’s grant has been a nil amount for contracts since 1 July 2019; its help for a first home is a stamp duty concession instead. The Northern Territory calls its grant the HomeGrown Territory Grant, which is the same scheme under a local name.

The grant and the stamp duty, on a $600,000 new home

The grant is only half of what a first home buyer is offered. Every state except Tasmania and the Northern Territory also cuts the stamp duty, and on a new home the duty saving is often the bigger number. Here are both, for the same $600,000 new home in each place, computed with this site’s stamp duty engines.

* Tasmania pays the higher amount only if the home is finished within 24 months of the contract. Duty is assumed to qualify for each state’s first home buyer rate, which has its own tests. The Northern Territory’s House and Land Package Exemption, open to any buyer who lives in an eligible new package, is not a first home concession and is not applied.

At this price the most help is in Northern Territory, $50,000 in all, and the least in ACT,$12,728. Tasmania and Northern Territory offer the grant with no duty concession behind it. The ranking changes with the price, because each duty concession stops at its own threshold, so put your own figure into the calculator above.

New homes only, and what counts as new

No state pays the grant on an established home any more. A home is new for the grant if it has not been lived in or sold as a place of residence before, which covers a newly built house or apartment, one bought off the plan, a contract with a builder to put a home on land you own, and a home you build yourself. A house-and-land package signed as two contracts, one for the land and one with the builder, is treated as a build.

A substantially renovated home can count too, and four states tie that to GST. Queensland pays on one only if its sale is a taxable supply, Tasmania needs it to be new residential premises under GST law, the Northern Territory applies a GST test as well, and South Australia expects it to be bought from a GST-registered developer. Victoria’s revenue office spells out the trap for a nearly new home: it must not have been sold, occupied as a home, leased out or used for short-term accommodation before, so a home its builder rented out first no longer counts there.

The value caps: four states, three ways of measuring

South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory put no limit on the value. The four that do each measure it differently, and the difference decides real purchases.

• NSW caps a purchase at $600,000 and a build at $750,000, and for a build adds the land, the building contract and any variations together.
• Victoria caps both at $750,000 and tests the price: the purchase price for a home you buy, the building contract alone for a build. The land is not added to a build, so a $500,000 build on $400,000 of land qualifies in Victoria and fails in NSW, Queensland and WA south of the 26th parallel.
• Queensland includes the land, and its cap stops short of its own figure: a home of $750,000 or more is out, so $749,999 is the last dollar that qualifies.
• WA raised its cap south of the 26th parallel, which takes in all of Perth, from $750,000 to $800,000 for contracts from 7 May 2026, and keeps $1,000,000 in the north.

A purchase is valued at the higher of the price and the market value in NSW and WA, so an under-value sale between relatives does not slip under a cap. A build’s variations count, which is how a home priced under the cap at contract can finish over it.

Who an earlier home rules out

Everyone is out if they or their partner owned a home in Australia before 1 July 2000. After that date the states split three ways, and the split is the most common reason two buyers with the same history get different answers.

• NSW, Victoria, WA and Tasmania rule you out only if you lived in a home you owned for six continuous months. An investment property you never lived in does not count against you. WA adds that any stay at all before 1 July 2004 counts.
• Queensland and the Northern Territory rule you out if you lived in a home you owned at any time since 1 July 2000, however briefly.
• South Australia rules out anyone who has owned any Australian residential property, lived in or not, for contracts from 13 February 2025.

An earlier grant rules you out too, with narrow exceptions: South Australia sets aside one that was repaid with a penalty after a breach, and Victoria has a family-violence exception. WA goes one step further and also rules out anyone who has had a first home owner rate of duty in any jurisdiction, which catches buyers who took a duty concession interstate and never claimed a grant.

Living there

Every grant comes with a condition to move in within 12 months of completion and stay. NSW and Victoria require 12 continuous months, as does the Northern Territory for contracts to 30 September 2027 (six after that); Queensland, WA, South Australia and Tasmania six. In NSW, Victoria and the Northern Territory one buyer living there is enough. WA asks it of each applicant, though its Commissioner can exempt one of two joint buyers.

The amounts with an end date

Tasmania pays $20,000 on contracts signed from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, but only if the home is completed within 24 months of the contract; otherwise it is $10,000. Its Commissioner can extend the 24 months for good reason. The Northern Territory’s $50,000 runs to contracts signed on 30 September 2027 and drops to $10,000 the next day. Queensland’s $30,000, once temporary, was written into the Act as the standing amount from 1 July 2026 and has no end date.

Applying

Every state gives you until 12 months after completion, which is usually settlement for a purchase and the handover of the keys for a build. In NSW, if you need the money at settlement or for a builder’s first progress payment, you apply through the approved agent providing your loan, which is normally the lender. The stamp duty concession is a separate scheme, with its own tests.

The grant can sit beside the federal First Home Super Saver scheme, which lets you save part of a deposit inside your super and take it out with earnings the ATO sets. Its clock is different: you ask for the money before you sign or within 90 days after, rather than after completion.