The Queensland First Home Owner Grant: who qualifies and how to claim

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Kooky

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

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The First Home Owner Grant is the best known piece of help for first buyers in Queensland, and one of the most misunderstood. It is worth $30,000, which is a large sum against a deposit. It is also narrower than its name suggests: it pays only toward new homes, only under a value limit, and only to people who then live in the home.

The grant was due to drop away on 30 June 2026. The State Budget of 23 June changed that. In a notice published the same day, the Queensland Revenue Office said the $30,000 grant will continue for eligible contracts signed from 1 July 2026, on the existing eligibility criteria. The Budget Overview sets aside $72 million for the grant over four years.

This guide explains the grant as the Revenue Office, which administers it, describes it: the amount, the homes that count, the people who can apply, the two ways to claim, how long it takes, and what the buyer must do after the money arrives. It closes with how the grant sits beside the other help a Queensland first buyer can use.

Queensland Revenue Office, First Home Owner Grant eligibility and obligations pages, and its State Budget notice of 23 June 2026.

What the grant is, and what it is not

The grant is a one-off payment from the State to a person, or a couple, buying or building their first home. It does not have to be repaid if the conditions are met. It is not a loan, not a guarantee and not a share in the home.

It is also separate from transfer duty. Queensland gives first buyers relief from duty through its own concessions, with their own rules and thresholds. A buyer can qualify for one and not the other, and the Revenue Office says on its duty pages that a buyer who claims a first home concession may also be eligible for the grant, under separate eligibility rules. Each has to be checked on its own terms.

The grant is not tied to income. The Revenue Office's eligibility page sets no income limit, and none appears in its application guide. The tests are about the home, the applicant's history and what the applicant does afterwards.

Finally, the grant is not paid on established homes. A first buyer purchasing a house that someone has already lived in gets no grant at any price, however modest the home. That one rule decides more outcomes than any other.

How much, and which date decides it

Two amounts are still in use, and the date of the transaction decides which applies.

The $15,000 column matters only to people whose transaction started before the grant was doubled and who have not yet claimed. Anyone signing a contract now is in the $30,000 column.

The date is the date the contract is signed, not the date of settlement and not the date the home is finished. For an owner builder, who has no single building contract, the Revenue Office looks at the day the foundations are laid.

One application covers one home. The grant is $30,000 for the home, not $30,000 for each buyer, however many people are on the title.

Which homes count as new

The Revenue Office lists six kinds of home that can attract the grant.

The first is the plain case: a brand new dwelling that has never been occupied or sold as a place of residence. The second is a home bought off the plan, where the contract is signed before the home exists. The third is a home built under a comprehensive building contract on land the applicant owns. The fourth is a home built by an owner builder. The fifth is a substantially renovated home. The sixth is a detached dwelling built on a relative's land, such as a granny flat or a tiny home.

Two of these need explaining. A substantially renovated home is not one with a new kitchen and fresh paint. The Revenue Office's definition requires that "all, or most, of the structural or non-structural components of a building are removed or replaced", with most rooms affected, and the sale has to meet goods and services tax conditions that apply to new residential premises. The renovated home must not have been lived in or sold as a residence since the renovation.

An owner builder, for the grant's purposes, is anyone who builds without a comprehensive home building contract, which the office describes as a contract under which one builder is responsible for the whole job from start to finish. Someone who manages separate trades themselves is an owner builder even if they never pick up a tool. That changes the date that counts, as the table above shows, and it changes the point at which the home is treated as complete.

The home must be in Queensland, and it must fit one of the six descriptions. The form of the dwelling matters less than its history: what the office asks is whether anyone has lived in it, or bought it as a residence, before.

The $750,000 limit

The home must be valued at less than $750,000. The Revenue Office is specific about what that figure includes: the land, and any variations to the building contract.

That detail catches people out in two ways. For a house and land purchase, the limit applies to the two together, not to the building contract alone. A $420,000 build on a $340,000 block totals $760,000 and is over the limit, although neither figure looks high alone. Those two numbers are an illustration, not market data.

For a home under construction, the value is not fixed on the day the contract is signed. Upgrades and changes made along the way are added. The Revenue Office's obligations page says that when the grant has been paid before the home is complete, the applicant must tell the office within 28 days if the value reaches $750,000 or more, variations included.

The limit is the same in every part of the State. There is no higher figure for Brisbane and no lower one for the regions, so its practical effect depends on local prices. Mortgage broker Aussie, in an article published on 29 April 2026, cited Cotality's home value index putting the median Brisbane dwelling at $1,101,151. Against a figure like that, the grant in the capital reaches new units, townhouses and house and land packages on the outer edge, and reaches a good deal further in regional cities.

Who can apply

The tests on the applicant are short, and each of them is strict.

• Age. Every applicant must be at least 18.
• Citizenship. The Revenue Office's eligibility page requires an Australian citizen or a permanent resident.
• No earlier grant. The applicant must not have received a first home owner grant before, in any Australian state or territory.
• No earlier home. The office's wording is that "you or your spouse must not have owned residential property in Australia on or after 1 July 2000 that you lived in".
• Residence. The applicant must move into the home within one year of completion and live there continuously for six months.

The spouse rule is the one most often overlooked. A spouse counts even when they are not buying. The application guide says all owners must be applicants or be identified as a non-applicant spouse, and that including a spouse is mandatory where there is one. A person who has never owned a home can therefore be ineligible because of a partner's history.

The ownership test turns on having owned a home and lived in it, on or after 1 July 2000. How the test applies to an investment property never lived in, or to an inherited share in a house, depends on the facts of each case, and the Revenue Office provides an online eligibility tester for exactly that reason.

Two ways to claim

There are two routes, and the choice affects when the money arrives.

Through an approved agent. An approved agent is a bank or lender authorised to receive grant applications. The buyer gives the lender the completed form and the supporting documents with the home loan application. The lender checks eligibility and handles the claim. The Revenue Office describes this as the faster option, and it is the usual one for anyone who needs the grant to help complete the purchase. Scanned applications are accepted if they are complete, signed and clearly legible.

Direct to the Revenue Office. A buyer who is not borrowing from an approved agent, or who prefers to claim afterwards, applies online through the office's portal. On this route the grant is not paid until the home is complete and every supporting document has been supplied. The office's phrase is that the applicant can apply once there is a "completed eligible transaction".

The supporting documents are listed on a separate Revenue Office page and vary with the type of transaction. In every case the office needs to see who the applicants are and evidence of the transaction itself.

Deadlines and how long it takes

The grant has an application deadline that is easy to miss, because it falls well after the excitement of the purchase.

An application must be made within one year of completion. What completion means depends on the transaction. For a buyer of a new home, it is taking possession and having the title registered. For a contract to build, and for an owner builder, it is the home being finished, which the Revenue Office illustrates with the issue of the final inspection certificate.

The office says these periods may be extended in special cases, and asks anyone applying late to include a written explanation of their circumstances. An extension is at the office's discretion, so the one-year period is the figure to plan around.

On timing, the Revenue Office says it aims to process an application that has reached "lodged" status within 10 working days. It adds that processing takes longer when volumes are high, when an application is incomplete, or when the transaction involves related parties.

It also gives a caution that is worth repeating in its own terms: when the grant is paid "depends on how and when you apply, and whether you are building or buying", and applicants should not rely on it for a payment that has to be made by a fixed date. A buyer who needs the $30,000 at settlement should settle that question with the lender early, not assume it.

After the grant is paid

The grant comes with two obligations, and they continue after the money has been spent.

The first is to move in within one year of the completed eligible transaction. The second is to live in the home continuously for six months. Both have to be met; moving in for a few weeks and then letting the home does not satisfy the rule.

Life does not always cooperate. A job moves, a relationship ends, a build runs late. The Revenue Office's rule for those cases is about speed and candour: a person who cannot meet the residence requirements must tell the office within 14 days of the change in circumstances. The office prefers to be told through its online enquiry form, under the subject "Home buyer grants".

The office says a recipient who is no longer eligible may have to pay the grant back, and that there are penalties for failing to tell it that the conditions cannot be met. The penalty amounts are set out in a public ruling, FHOGA047.1, not on the general information pages. The practical point is that repaying a grant after an honest notification and being penalised for silence are two different outcomes.

Where the grant sits among the other schemes

The grant is one of several forms of help, each run by a different body with different tests. A buyer of a new home in Queensland may be looking at three or four at once.

Transfer duty. Since 1 May 2025, a first buyer of a new home pays no transfer duty, with no limit on the home's value, according to the Revenue Office. The Treasurer's Budget statement of 23 June 2026 said more than 3,500 Queenslanders had used that relief, saving more than $66 million. A new home under $750,000 can therefore attract both the grant and the duty exemption. A new home above $750,000 attracts the exemption alone.

The Australian Government's 5% Deposit Scheme. This is a guarantee to the lender, not a payment to the buyer. The scheme's website describes a minimum 5 per cent deposit with no lenders mortgage insurance, no income caps and no waitlist. It covers new and existing homes, under price caps set by location.

Shared equity. The State's Boost to Buy scheme and the Australian Government's Help to Buy scheme each take a share in the home in exchange for a smaller loan. Queensland Treasury and Housing Australia each publish income limits for their scheme, and each has a set number of places.

The grant's own rules do not depend on the others. Whether the others allow a grant alongside them is a question for each scheme, and the lender handling the loan is usually the one who has to answer it for a particular buyer.

The questions that decide most cases

Most of the uncertainty around the grant comes down to five questions, and all of them can be answered before a contract is signed.

1. Is the home new, in one of the six senses the Revenue Office lists?
2. Is its value, with land and every variation, below $750,000?
3. Has the applicant, or the applicant's spouse, owned and lived in a home in Australia since 1 July 2000, or received a grant before?
4. Is every applicant 18 or older, and a citizen or permanent resident?
5. Will the applicant move in within a year of completion and stay for six months without a break?

A no to any of the first, second, fourth or fifth, or a yes to the third, ends the claim. Five clear answers mean the grant is likely to be available, and the remaining work is paperwork: the right form, the right documents, lodged through the lender or with the Revenue Office inside the one-year window.

The Budget has removed the question that hung over the grant for most of 2026, which was whether it would still be $30,000 after June. For contracts signed from 1 July 2026, it is.

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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