QLD first home buyers
QLD First Home Owner Grant
The QLD First Home Owner Grant is a Queensland government payment for first home buyers who buy or build a brand new home to live in themselves, administered by the Queensland Revenue Office under its own eligibility, value and occupancy rules.
Your Mortgage Broker Jimboomba(/) works with Jimboomba buyers on first purchases, including how the grant fits alongside duty relief and your loan. This page covers the current amounts, who qualifies, which properties count, how it interacts with stamp duty relief, and where eligible stock actually sits locally.
A Bigger Cheque Than Most Buyers Expect
The grant was lifted from $15,000 to $30,000 for contracts signed on or after 20 November 2023, and that doubled amount still stands. The Queensland Revenue Office landing page carries the 2026 State Budget of 23 June 2026 and states no change to either the amount or the value cap, so a buyer signing an eligible contract today is chasing twice the payment many older articles describe. The $15,000 figure you will still see on stale comparison sites applies only to contracts signed before that November date, which is worth knowing before you trust any calculator built in 2023.
Who Qualifies
The applicant tests sit with you rather than the property, and each one is checked against documents at application stage:
Age and status
No prior ownership
People, not entities
You must occupy it
Joint applicants count too
The value cap
Which Properties It Covers
The property tests are where most assumptions break, so this table sets them out against the eligibility rules on the Queensland Revenue Office page:
| Property type | Eligible? | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| New home, never occupied or sold as a residence | Yes | Home and land must total less than $750,000 |
| Substantially renovated by the seller | Yes, in limited circumstances | Cosmetic work fails: most of the building must be removed or replaced |
| House, unit, duplex or townhouse | Yes, if new | Structure type does not matter, newness does |
| Off-the-plan purchase | Yes | Value test still applies at contract |
| Comprehensive contract to build | Yes | Contract price plus unencumbered land value at contract date must be under $750,000 |
| Owner-builder | Yes | $30,000 where foundations were laid on or after 20 November 2023 |
| Established home | No | There are no home owner grants for established homes, at any price |
Why The Rule Bites Here
The eligibility rule is national in its wording but the new-home-only requirement lands very differently depending on where you are shopping, and around Jimboomba it shapes the search more than the price cap does.
Established Stock Dominates
Census figures record 96.7 per cent of Jimboomba dwellings as separate houses, with only 1.3 per cent being flats or apartments, and almost all of that standing stock is established. A buyer walking the local market and falling for a tired brick-and-tile on a quarter acre is looking at a property that attracts no grant at all, no matter how suitable the price or the block.
Where New Stock Actually Sits
The eligible product here is largely being created rather than resold. Dwelling approvals across the last five years total 874 in this suburb, and local building activity runs in the ninety-sixth percentile of Queensland, so the grant-eligible stock is concentrated in new estates and house-and-land releases on the subdivision edges rather than in the established acreage streets most buyers picture first.
The Gap Between Eligible And Desirable
That creates a real tension: the homes that qualify for $30,000 sit in newer estates on smaller lots, while the larger acreage properties that draw many buyers to the area are established and therefore grant-ineligible by definition. Buyers routinely find that the property they want and the property the grant rewards are two different houses, and the decision has to be made deliberately rather than discovered at contract stage.
What It Means For Your Search
Practically, this means deciding early whether the grant is central to your deposit plan or incidental to it. If the $30,000 is doing real work in your numbers, focus on new builds and house-and-land packages and run the value test before you sign anything, and our first home buyer and construction loan pages cover how those purchases are financed and sequenced.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The grant is only half the support on the table, because a separate first home transfer duty concession works differently and covers different properties:
Both can apply to one purchase
Established homes get the concession instead
No duty under $700,000
A reduced band above that
Occupancy is tested separately
Renting a room is now allowed
Citizenship rules tightened
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
When the grant actually lands in your account depends heavily on the route you take, and choosing the wrong route can leave you funding a build without money you had counted on.
- 1
Lodge Through A Lender
Applying through an approved agent, meaning your bank or lender, is the fastest path. For a purchase, the grant is generally paid at settlement, which means it can sit inside your funds on settlement day instead of arriving months later as a reimbursement you had to bridge yourself.
- 2
Applying Directly
Lodging your own application with the Queensland Revenue Office is slower by design. For a purchase or a build, no payment is made until the home is complete and every supporting document has been supplied, so budget your cash flow on the assumption the grant arrives last, not first.
- 3
Builds And Owner-Builders
A contract to build or an owner-builder project is paid after completion, on presentation of the final inspection certificate or certificate of occupancy. Given construction timelines locally, that can mean many months between signing and payment, which matters if you treated the grant as part of your deposit.
- 4
Deadlines You Cannot Miss
The application window is one year from taking possession and title registration for a purchase, or one year from completion for a build. Miss it and the grant is gone, so diarise the deadline the week you sign rather than trusting memory across a long build.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
The refusal reasons are remarkably consistent, and nearly all of them are avoidable with a contract reviewed before signing rather than after:
- Buying an established home And assuming it qualifies, the single most common misunderstanding among first buyers.
- Contract value at or over $750,000 Where the grant is not reduced, it is refused outright, and a hard cutoff leaves no room to negotiate.
- Splitting a house-and-land package Into a land contract plus a separate building contract, which makes it a contract-to-build transaction with the land value counted in the test.
- Land bought years earlier That has risen in value, quietly pushing an otherwise affordable build over the cap at contract date.
- A non-comprehensive building contract With items such as benchtops or electrical excluded fails the contract-to-build test entirely.
- Moving in too late Or leaving before six continuous months, either of which can trigger repayment of the grant.
- Prior ownership anywhere in Australia By the applicant or their spouse, including a property held briefly or inherited.
- Applying as a company or trust Which is ineligible regardless of the buyers' personal circumstances.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Jimboomba helps first home buyers across the Logan area understand how the grant and duty relief fit their purchase, working from Jimboomba and surrounding suburbs including Stockleigh, Logan Village, Tamborine, Mundoolun, Cedar Vale and Cedar Grove, where new releases and established acreage sit side by side.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the QLD First Home Owner Grant worth?
Contracts signed on or after 20 November 2023 attract $30,000. Contracts signed before that date attract $15,000, a figure that still circulates on older websites but no longer applies to current purchases.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. The Queensland Revenue Office states plainly that there are no home owner grants for established homes, at any price. Only new or substantially renovated homes qualify, no matter how modest the purchase.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
The home and land together must be worth less than $750,000, including any contract variations. At $750,000 or more the grant is refused outright rather than reduced, so the cutoff is hard.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Yes. You must move in within one year of completion and live there continuously for six months. The Commissioner can only waive this in exceptional circumstances, so plan your move-in date accordingly.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, completely. The grant pays cash and only applies to new homes. The first home transfer duty concession reduces your duty and applies to established homes too, so many buyers qualify for one or both.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
Applying through an approved lender agent is the fastest route, generally paid at settlement for purchases. Applying directly to the Queensland Revenue Office means waiting until the home is complete and all documents are supplied.
Mortgage broker for Jimboomba and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing a new build against established stock and want the grant, duty concession and loan worked into one set of numbers, call (07) 3523 7115. You deal with a named, qualified broker operating under an Australian Credit Licence, with our fees and process published for you to check before anything is lodged.