How long must you live in a first home bought with government help?

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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Every form of help offered to a Queensland first home buyer comes with the same quiet condition: the home has to be lived in. The grant, the transfer duty concessions, the federal deposit guarantee, the two shared equity schemes and the super savings scheme are all built for owner-occupiers, and each one checks that in its own way. What differs is the detail. One scheme gives a year to move in, another six months, another expects the keys to be used on settlement day. One allows a housemate, another forbids renting a single room.

Those differences matter most after the purchase, when a job moves, a relationship ends, a spare room looks like a way to soften the repayments, or a builder runs late.

This guide sets the occupancy rules of each scheme next to each other, as the agencies that run them state them in October 2026: the deadline to move in, the minimum stay, the position on renting and selling, who must be told and what follows a breach. It leaves aside who qualifies, price caps and amounts. These are general rules: whether a particular change of plan breaks one depends on the facts, and on the agency or lender concerned.

Queensland Revenue Office pages on the first home owner grant, the home concessions and the notice for reassessment, read on 9 October 2026.

Two clocks run on every scheme

Occupancy rules are easier to follow once they are split into two clocks. The first is the arrival clock: the date by which the buyer must be living in the home. The second is the staying clock: how long the buyer must remain, or how long certain things, such as leasing or selling, are off limits.

The starting point of the arrival clock is not the same everywhere. The Queensland Revenue Office counts the grant's year from the completed transaction, which for a purchased home means possession and registration on title, and for a build means the final inspection. It counts the concessions' year from the transfer date, usually settlement. The federal deposit scheme counts from settlement of the home loan. The super savings scheme counts from the day it becomes practicable to move in.

The staying clock varies even more. For the grant it is a fixed block of six months. For the duty concessions there is no stated minimum stay, but a year of restrictions begins on the day the buyer moves in. For the deposit guarantee and the shared equity schemes there is no finish line at all: the home has to remain the buyer's residence for as long as the government's support is in place.

What counts as living there is described in plain terms. The Revenue Office's concession pages ask the buyer to move in with their personal belongings and live in the home on a daily basis. Its grant page, like the shared equity schemes, speaks of the principal place of residence.

The grant: a year to arrive, six months to stay

The First Home Owner Grant has the simplest pair of clocks. The Queensland Revenue Office's eligibility page says the buyer must move into the new home as their principal place of residence within one year of the completed transaction and live there continuously for six months. The same two periods are written into section 15 of the First Home Owner Grant and Other Home Owner Grants Act 2000.

The grant is unusual in what it tolerates before the buyer arrives. The Revenue Office's comparison of grants and concessions states that the home may be rented out before the owner moves in without losing the grant. It adds a warning in the same line: doing so may cost the buyer a transfer duty concession on the same property, because the concessions take the opposite view.

Once the six continuous months are complete, the Revenue Office's comparison says the home can be sold, or rented out as a whole, as far as the grant is concerned.

The Revenue Office may ask for proof later: its eligibility page says applicants may be required to provide documents covering the occupancy period. Where there are joint applicants, section 22 of the Act treats compliance by one of them as compliance by all.

Duty concessions: a year to arrive, a year of restrictions

The transfer duty concessions work differently. The first home concession, the first home (new home) concession that brings duty to nil on contracts dated 1 May 2025 or later, and the general home concession all share one set of occupancy conditions on the Revenue Office's pages, each last updated on 31 July 2026.

The buyer must move in within one year of settlement. The pages add that this time cannot be extended. For the first home vacant land concession, the Revenue Office's comparison gives two years from the transfer date to build the home and move in.

There is no minimum stay expressed in months. Instead, the concessions restrict what the owner may do with the property during two periods. Before moving in, the owner cannot sell or transfer all or part of the property, and cannot lease it or grant anyone exclusive possession of all or part of it. During the first year after moving in, the owner cannot lease or grant exclusive possession of the whole property, and a sale or transfer in that year puts the concession at risk.

The restricted period can therefore run well beyond twelve months: a buyer who moves in eleven months after settlement starts the year of restrictions only on the day of arrival.

The Revenue Office's home concession page adds that for transactions entered into on or after 1 August 2026 the concessions also require the buyer to be an Australian citizen, a permanent resident or a specified foreign retiree.

A spare room, a granny flat, the whole house

Renting is where the schemes disagree most, and where a buyer holding several kinds of help can go wrong by assuming one answer applies to all.

For the duty concessions, the position changed on a date the Revenue Office repeats on every relevant page: 10 September 2024. An owner who has moved in may lease part of the property, a room for example, if the arrangement starts on or after that date and the owner keeps living there. The comparison page ties this to continuing to live in the home for one year after moving in. A part lease that began before 10 September 2024 may still cause the concession to be lost. Leasing any part of the property before moving in remains outside the rules, with one exception dealt with below.

For the grant, the Revenue Office says one or more rooms, or a granny flat, may be rented during the six month residence period, as long as the arrangement does not affect the owner's own use of the home.

The federal schemes split. Under Help to Buy, the Australian Government's First Home Buyers site states that no part of the property may be rented, leased or licensed in exchange for payment or other consideration, and it names a single room as included. Queensland's own shared equity scheme differs: the Queensland Treasury's Boost to Buy page says the participant must not rent out the property but may rent out a room or take on a housemate.

For the 5% Deposit Scheme, the published material deals with the home as a whole. Housing Australia's guarantee questions and answers list renting out the property among the events that end the guarantee. The pages opened for this guide do not address a single room, so that question belongs with the participating lender.

Selling early, knocking down, tenants left in place

Three situations on the concession pages deserve a closer look, because each one surprises buyers.

The first is an early sale. Selling or transferring all or part of the property before moving in means the concession's conditions are not met. Selling within the first year after moving in is treated less severely: the Revenue Office says a partial concession may apply, covering the time the owner lived there. Its pages do not set out the calculation. Two cases need no notice at all, according to the notice for reassessment page: a transfer of part of the land to a spouse that is exempt under section 151 of the Duties Act 2001, and entering a retirement village leasing arrangement for the residence.

The second is demolition. The home concession page states that the concession does not apply if the buyer demolishes the existing home without first living in it, even if a new home is built and occupied within the year. The order matters. The same page gives the example of owners who live in the existing house continuously for three months before deciding to rebuild: living there first is the point on which the rule turns.

The third is a home that is occupied on settlement day. A sitting tenant or a seller who stays on is the one exception to the rule against leasing before moving in. The Revenue Office's first home and home concession pages say existing tenants must move out when their lease expires or within six months of settlement, whichever comes first, and a previous owner who stays must also be gone within six months. The buyer's own one year deadline to move in keeps running throughout.

The federal deposit scheme is tighter: the First Home Buyers site says existing tenants are allowed if the buyer moves in within the six month window.

The 5% Deposit Scheme: six months, then for the life of the guarantee

The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme, the name given to the former Home Guarantee Scheme from 1 October 2025, sets the shortest fixed arrival clock. The First Home Buyers site, which is authorised by the Australian Government, states that the buyer must move into the property within six months of settlement and keep living there while the guarantee is active. Housing Australia's questions and answers, which still carry the scheme's earlier name, add that there are no extensions to the six months and that, for a home being built, the buyer moves in once an occupancy certificate is issued.

There is no minimum stay because the obligation does not expire while the guarantee lasts. Housing Australia's First Home Guarantee page lists what brings the guarantee to an end: the buyer stops living in the property without an exemption, rents it out, sells it, borrows more against it, fully repays the loan, including by refinancing with a lender outside the scheme, or pays the principal down to 80 per cent of the property's value. The last of these is the natural exit, and the occupancy condition falls away with it.

The consequence of leaving early is financial, and it arrives through the lender, not through a government notice. The First Home Buyers site says a lender may require lenders mortgage insurance if the buyer does not move in on time or moves out before the guarantee ends. Housing Australia describes the possible cost as lenders mortgage insurance or other significant costs on the loan.

Housing Australia's material adds that where a buyer moves away for a time and does not rent the home out, the guarantee may be able to continue, a matter to raise with the participating lender before moving out.

Shared equity: obligations that last as long as the share

Under a shared equity scheme a government owns part of the home's value, so its conditions last as long as that share does.

Help to Buy, run by Housing Australia, expects the earliest arrival of any scheme. The First Home Buyers site says the buyer of an established home moves in as soon as settlement occurs, and that anyone prevented by exceptional circumstances must apply to Housing Australia for an exemption before the final application is approved. For a new home being built, the deadline is three months from completion of construction. After that the property must stay the participant's principal place of residence for as long as the Government holds an equity interest.

Participants give advance notice of renovations, refinancing or a sale, and Housing Australia reviews them at least every five years. If the ongoing requirements are not met, the site says a review may follow, which could require the participant to repay part or all of the Government's share.

Boost to Buy, Queensland's scheme, states its staying clock as a number. The Queensland Treasury's pages, last updated on 3 July 2026, say the participant must remain in the scheme, living in the property as their principal place of residence, for at least two years from settlement. Only then can they exit, by selling or by repaying the State's share in full. While in the scheme, an absence of more than three consecutive months needs approval, the participant cannot acquire other land or property, and an eligibility audit is completed every five years.

The Treasury is direct about the consequence. A participant who moves out, so that the property is no longer the main home, or who buys another property must notify the Queensland Government straight away. Eligibility is lost and the government's full share must be repaid immediately, through refinancing, extra funds or a sale.

A grant asks for six months and a duty concession for a year. A guarantee or an equity share asks for as long as it lasts.

Super savings: six months inside the first twelve

The First Home Super Saver Scheme is a tax measure, so its occupancy test sits with the Australian Taxation Office. The ATO's scheme guidance, published on 8 July 2026, says the buyer must genuinely intend to occupy the property as a home as soon as practicable after purchase, and must occupy it for at least six of the first twelve months, counted from when it is practicable to move in. Unlike the grant's six months, these do not need to be continuous under the wording the ATO uses.

The scheme has a second deadline that works like an occupancy rule in advance. After requesting the release of savings, the buyer generally has twelve months to sign a contract to buy or build, and the ATO can allow up to twelve further months. A buyer who does not sign in time must either put the required amount back into super or keep it and pay FHSS tax. The ATO sets that tax at 20 per cent of the assessable released amount, on top of any income tax on it. The buyer must tell the ATO which path was taken, and the ATO issues a notice of assessment for any FHSS tax owed.

Who must be told, and how fast

A broken occupancy condition does not stay hidden until an audit finds it. Under the Queensland schemes the owner has a duty to report it, and the deadlines are short.

The grant's fourteen days come from section 22 of the Act, and the starting point is easy to misread. The relevant date is the earlier of two moments: the end of the period allowed for compliance, or the date it first becomes apparent that the residence requirements will not be met during that period. An owner who knows in the third month that they will never move in is on notice from that day, not from the end of the year. Within the fourteen days the owner must both give written notice and repay the grant. Failing to do so is an offence under the same section, with a maximum penalty of 40 penalty units.

For the concessions, the Revenue Office's notice for reassessment page, last updated on 18 May 2026, says Form D2.4 is completed within 28 days. It covers every breach described above, from a missed move-in date to a lease or sale inside the restricted periods. The form is lodged online. A part lease that started on or after 10 September 2024, with the owner still in residence, needs no form. The page states that failing to give notice is an offence and that penalties may apply.

When plans change for reasons outside the buyer's control

The rules leave some room for events nobody planned, though the room differs by scheme.

The grant has the widest discretion. Section 15 of the Act allows the commissioner to approve a longer period than one year for moving in, and to approve a shorter residence period than six months, or exempt an applicant altogether, where there are good reasons to do so. The Revenue Office's eligibility page describes this as discretion used in exceptional circumstances.

The concessions are tighter. The one year to move in cannot be extended, on the Revenue Office's wording. Its comparison page does, however, describe an exception for an intervening event that prevents the buyer from occupying the home, such as a natural disaster or the death or incapacity of the person concerned. In that case the concession may be kept, and the application is made in writing to the Commissioner of State Revenue.

For the other schemes the path runs through a request made before the event: an exemption application to Housing Australia before final approval under Help to Buy, a conversation with the participating lender before moving out under the 5% Deposit Scheme, and approval before a long absence under Boost to Buy.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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