QLD first home buyers
QLD First Home Owner Grant
The Queensland First Home Owner Grant is a one off payment from the Queensland Government for first home buyers who buy or build a new home in Queensland and meet the eligibility rules set by the Queensland Revenue Office.
Your Mortgage Broker Carseldine(/) covers this page end to end: what the grant is worth, who qualifies, which properties it covers, how it interacts with duty relief, how to apply, and the reasons applications get refused around the northern Brisbane suburbs.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The figure that surprises most buyers is not the headline payment, it is how recently it changed. For eligible contracts signed on or after 20 November 2023, the grant pays $30,000, double the $15,000 that applied to contracts signed before that date. That older figure still circulates on dated comparison pages and in old forum threads, so buyers routinely budget thousands of dollars short. Owner builders sit under the same structure: $30,000 where foundations were laid on or after 20 November 2023. The Queensland Revenue Office landing page references the 23 June 2026 State Budget and states no change to the amount or the value cap, so $30,000 remains the working figure. Check the QRO grant page before you rely on any number, because grants and thresholds do move with budgets.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility is tested on the person, the property and the timing, and all three have to line up on the day you sign. These are the core tests drawn from the QRO eligibility page:
Age and applicant type
Citizenship or residency
Prior property ownership
Occupancy commitment
New home only
Under the value cap
If any single test fails, the application fails, so it pays to confirm your position before you sign a contract rather than after.
Which Properties It Covers
The word "new" does a lot of work in this scheme, and the boundary between qualifying and not qualifying is sharper than most buyers expect. This table summarises the QRO eligibility page:
| Property type | Grant eligible? | The detail that decides it |
|---|---|---|
| New house, unit, duplex or townhouse | Yes | Must never have been occupied or sold as a place of residence |
| Substantially renovated home | Yes, limited | Seller must have completed the renovation; cosmetic work such as a new kitchen or re carpeting does not count, most of the building must have been removed or replaced |
| Off the plan purchase | Yes | Treated as a new home where the other eligibility tests are met |
| Contract to build | Yes | Needs a comprehensive home building contract; value test adds the contract price to the unencumbered land value at the contract date |
| Owner build | Yes | $30,000 where foundations were laid on or after 20 November 2023 |
| Established home | No | The QRO states plainly there are no home owner grants for established homes |
Note the renovation trap: a flash new kitchen and fresh carpet are cosmetic, not substantial, and buyers have paid for renovator sold homes believing otherwise.
Why The Rule Bites Here
The $750,000 cap is a hard cutoff, not a sliding reduction, and where you shop for stock determines how much it constrains you. In northern Brisbane the rule interacts with local stock in ways that shape a first buyer's search, and this suburb shows the pattern clearly.
Where Eligible Stock Actually Sits
Carseldine is dominated by established housing: 71.3 per cent of its 3,632 dwellings are separate houses and only 1.0 per cent are flats or apartments, all figures from the suburb facts table. That means most homes listed here today fail the new home test outright, and eligible stock comes almost exclusively from new builds and off the plan projects.
Building Activity Shapes Your Options
The suburb sits at the 68th percentile in Queensland for building activity, with 248 dwelling approvals across the last five years including 42 in 2021-22. That pipeline matters, because every approval represents future stock that can qualify for the grant where an existing home never will.
The Gap Between Eligible and Desirable
Homes past the cap are refused the grant entirely, not paid a reduced amount, so a buyer who falls for a property valued at $750,000 or more including variations walks away with nothing. Because the local market skews toward larger established family homes, the grant eligible stock and the stock first buyers actually want are often different lists.
What This Means For Your Search
The practical consequence is that a grant dependent first buyer here should shortlist new developments, house and land packages and off the plan projects specifically, and price the total contract value including variations before signing. We cover the finance side on the first home buyer loans page.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The two schemes are often discussed as one, and assuming they are identical is where buyers miscalculate. They are separate, run by the same office, with different property rules and different value tests. These are the structural differences, all from the QRO first home duty concession page:
Different property rules
Different value thresholds
Different occupancy rules
Renting part of the home is allowed
They stack on one purchase
One caution from 1 August 2026: duty concession applicants must be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or specified foreign retiree, and trusts and companies generally cannot claim. The vacant land concession exists separately but its thresholds are not published on the linked page, so we will not quote a figure. Confirm both schemes against the QRO pages before you sign, and run tax questions past your accountant.
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
The application route you choose changes when the money lands, sometimes by months, and the timing rules differ between buying and building. The QRO apply and payment page sets out both paths.
- 1
Applying Through A Lender
Lodging through an approved agent, meaning a bank or lender, is the fastest route. Where you are buying, the grant is generally paid at settlement, which means it can work as part of your funds on the day rather than arriving months later as a rebate.
- 2
Applying Directly To The QRO
Lodging directly with the Queensland Revenue Office means the grant is not paid until the home is complete and every supporting document has been supplied. For a purchase that is usually settlement plus completeness; for a build, it is the end of the build.
- 3
The Building Timeline
For a contract to build or an owner build, payment arrives after completion, on receipt of the final inspection certificate or certificate of occupancy. Plan your cash flow around that date, not around the contract signing date, because construction finance runs to its own stages as the construction loans page explains.
- 4
The Application Deadline
You have one year from taking possession and title registration to apply for a purchase, and one year from completion for a build. Miss it and the grant is gone, so diarise the deadline the day you sign.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
The Queensland Revenue Office publishes the refusal patterns, and they cluster around contract structure and assumptions rather than fraud. Every one of these is avoidable with a pre contract check:
- Assuming an established home qualifies It never does, at any price, and this remains the single most common misunderstanding the scheme generates.
- Landing at or over $750,000 The cutoff is hard and the grant is not reduced, it is refused, so a contract variation worth a few thousand dollars can erase $30,000.
- Structuring a house and land package as two contracts A land contract plus a separate building contract is a contract to build transaction, so the value test includes the land, which changes the arithmetic many buyers expected.
- Rising land values on older land Land bought years before the build can appreciate past the cap when combined with the building contract, pushing the total over the threshold.
- A non comprehensive building contract Contracts that exclude items such as benchtops or electrical work fail the contract to build test entirely, so read what the contract actually covers before signing.
- Occupancy failures Moving in later than one year after completion, or leaving before six continuous months, puts the grant at risk outside exceptional circumstances.
- Prior ownership anywhere in Australia Ownership by you or your spouse, in any state, on or after 1 July 2000, disqualifies the application.
- Applying as a company or trust Only natural people qualify, so structure the purchase accordingly.
A guarantor arrangement is one way first buyers strengthen a deposit position, and because guarantee risk is genuine, any guarantor should take independent legal and financial advice before signing anything.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Carseldine arranges home loans across Brisbane's northern suburbs, and first home buyers in neighbouring areas face the same grant rules and stock constraints described on this page. We work with buyers in Bald Hills, Fitzgibbon, Zillmere, Aspley and Bridgeman Downs, each with its own mix of established homes and new development. If your suburb sits nearby but is not listed, get in touch anyway and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the QLD First Home Owner Grant worth?
For contracts signed on or after 20 November 2023, the grant is $30,000. Contracts signed before that date attracted $15,000, a figure that still appears on older pages and causes regular confusion.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. The Queensland Revenue Office is explicit that there are no home owner grants for established homes, at any price. Established homes can still qualify for the separate first home transfer duty concession.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
The home and land together must be valued at less than $750,000, including any contract variations. At $750,000 or more the grant is refused outright, not reduced.
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 extend this in exceptional circumstances.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are separate schemes with different rules. The grant applies only to new homes; the duty concession applies to established and new homes and uses different value thresholds.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
Applying through an approved agent such as a lender is the fastest route, generally paid at settlement. Applying directly to the Queensland Revenue Office means waiting until the home is complete and all documents are supplied.
Mortgage broker for Carseldine and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
Questions about how the grant fits your deposit and borrowing position? Call (07) 3523 7109 for a no obligation conversation with a broker who works under an Australian Credit Licence and operates as a credit representative, with AFCA membership behind the business. Who you are dealing with is set out on the About page.