First home buyer grants and concessions: a state-by-state guide

If you've read about first home buyer support and ended up confused, you're not alone. The First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) is a national scheme, but each state and territory administers it differently, with its own amount, its own eligibility rules, and its own additional concessions on top. There's no single "Australia-wide" deal.

It's part of our complete guide to buying your first home in Victoria.

This is a plain-English overview of what's on offer in each state and territory.

Figures and thresholds in this area change regularly. Always check the official state revenue office website for the current numbers before relying on them.

What every scheme has in common

Across Australia, the FHOG is built around the same core idea: a one-off payment to help first home buyers buying or building a new home. A few principles apply almost everywhere:

• The applicant (or one of them) must be a first home buyer in Australia, never previously owned residential property
• The home must be your principal place of residence, generally for a minimum of 6 to 12 months
• Most states cap the property value (the cap varies by state and by region)
• The grant is usually paid at settlement, often through your lender or conveyancer
• "New" generally means newly built, off-the-plan, or substantially renovated and never previously sold or occupied

Where the schemes diverge is in the amount, the value cap, and what extra support sits alongside (especially stamp duty concessions, which can be worth far more than the grant itself).

Victoria

Victoria's First Home Owner Grant is $10,000, available for new homes valued up to $750,000 in metropolitan Melbourne, with separate rules for regional Victoria.

Where Victoria really helps first home buyers is stamp duty:

• Full exemption from stamp duty for first home buyers on properties up to $600,000
• A sliding-scale concession from $600,001 to $750,000
• No restriction to new builds for these concessions: they apply to existing homes too

The First Home Super Saver Scheme (Commonwealth, available nationwide) also applies to Victorian buyers.

Note: The Victorian Homebuyer Fund (a shared-equity scheme where the government co-purchased a share of your property) closed to new applicants in September 2025. The Commonwealth Help to Buy shared equity scheme is expected to replace it. Check the federal Housing Australia website for current availability.

New South Wales

NSW's First Home Owner Grant is $10,000 for new builds, with property value caps that change over time.

The more useful program for most NSW first home buyers is the First Home Buyer Assistance Scheme, which provides:

• Full stamp duty exemption on new and existing homes up to a threshold (most recently around $800,000)
• Concessional rates above the threshold up to a cap (most recently around $1 million)

NSW briefly ran a stamp-duty-or-annual-property-tax election scheme; that was wound back and replaced with the more conventional exemption above. Always check the current settings.

Queensland

Queensland substantially increased its First Home Owner Grant in 2023 and again in 2024, reaching $30,000 for new builds. That elevated rate applied to eligible transactions up to 30 June 2026, and its continuation beyond that date has been subject to change, so confirm the current amount with the Queensland Revenue Office before relying on it.

Queensland also offers:

• A first home stamp duty concession (essentially full exemption up to a threshold, then concessional rates)
• A separate concession for vacant land if you're building

Queensland's combined package is among the most generous in the country for first home buyers building new, particularly with the elevated grant.

Western Australia

The WA First Home Owner Grant is $10,000 for new builds, with property value caps that vary by region (a higher cap above the 26th parallel to support buyers in regional and remote WA).

Stamp duty concessions in WA are reasonable but more modest than NSW or Victoria, and the threshold settings have moved in recent years. Always confirm the current thresholds with the WA Office of State Revenue.

South Australia

SA's First Home Owner Grant is $15,000 for new builds.

SA also runs a stamp duty concession for first home buyers on new homes, removing or reducing the duty payable. The concessions are tightly linked to "new". Existing-home first home buyers in SA get less support than they would in NSW or Victoria.

Tasmania

Tasmania offered $30,000 for new homes, one of the highest First Home Owner Grants in the country, for eligible transactions up to 30 June 2026, reducing to $20,000 from 1 July 2026. Always confirm the current rate with the State Revenue Office Tasmania.

Tasmania has also run first home buyer stamp duty concessions on existing homes up to a threshold (uncommon at this level outside NSW and Victoria) and a "first home builder" boost for new builds in some periods.

Australian Capital Territory

The ACT is mid-way through a long-term reform replacing stamp duty with broad-based land tax. As a result, ACT stamp duty for owner-occupiers has been declining each year.

For first home buyers specifically, the ACT runs the Home Buyer Concession Scheme, which provides full stamp duty exemption for buyers below an income threshold, regardless of whether the home is new or existing.

The ACT has phased out the traditional FHOG in favour of broader concessions.

Northern Territory

The NT's headline grant is the HomeGrown Territory scheme, providing $50,000 for eligible buyers purchasing or building a new home in the Northern Territory. A separate FreshStart scheme targets new arrivals to the Territory. Rates and eligibility are subject to change, so always check with the NT Revenue Office.

NT stamp duty concessions for first home buyers exist but are more modest than the eastern states.

Federal schemes that apply everywhere

Two Commonwealth programs apply nationally and are worth understanding alongside any state grants:

First Home Super Saver Scheme

Lets you contribute voluntarily to super and withdraw those contributions (plus deemed earnings) for a first home deposit. The cap has been increased to $50,000 across the scheme's lifetime. The benefit is tax-related: contributions are concessionally taxed, so for many first home buyers it's a more efficient way to save a deposit than a bank account.

Home Guarantee Scheme (formerly First Home Loan Deposit Scheme)

A federal government scheme run through participating lenders that lets eligible buyers purchase with a smaller deposit (sometimes 5%) without paying lenders mortgage insurance (LMI). There are two main variants:

• First Home Guarantee: for first home buyers (covers both metropolitan and regional purchases; property price caps apply and vary by location, for example $950,000 for metropolitan Melbourne as of the 2025-26 financial year; income caps were removed from October 2025)
• Family Home Guarantee: for single parents (including non-first-home buyers)

Note: The separate Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee was merged into the main First Home Guarantee from October 2025. Regional purchases are now covered under the one scheme with regional price caps applying.

LMI savings can run into the tens of thousands, so even if the grant in your state is small, this scheme can be the most valuable piece of the package. Always check Housing Australia's website for current caps and place availability.

How to actually use this

If you're a first home buyer, the order of operations is usually:

1. Confirm eligibility for your state's FHOG: even if you're not buying new, knowing what's available helps you compare options.
2. Confirm eligibility for your state's stamp duty concession: this is often worth more than the grant.
3. Check whether the Home Guarantee Scheme suits you: places are limited each financial year, and applying through a participating lender can save tens of thousands in LMI.
4. Run the numbers on First Home Super Saver before you commit a deposit elsewhere.
5. Talk to a mortgage broker: they're better placed than any blog post to model your specific case against current rules.

A common mistake

Buyers often focus on the grant (the headline number) and miss the stamp duty concession (the bigger number). On a $700,000 first home in Victoria, the $10,000 grant doesn't apply (existing home) but the stamp duty concession can save you over $24,000. Always look at the whole package.

The key takeaways

The grants and concessions look different in every state, but the structure is similar: a grant for new builds, a stamp duty concession for owner-occupiers, and a federal LMI-waiver scheme on top. Get the figures from your state revenue office before you commit, and don't make a "new vs existing" decision based on the grant alone. The stamp duty side of the equation often matters more.

Sources

Grant amounts and thresholds are set by each state and territory revenue authority and change regularly. Confirm the current figure for your location with the relevant authority before relying on it:

• VIC: State Revenue Office Victoria: First Home Owner Grant
• NSW: Revenue NSW: First Home Owner (New Homes) Grant
• QLD: Queensland Revenue Office: First Home Owner Grant
• WA: Government of Western Australia: First Home Owner Grant
• SA: RevenueSA: First Home Owner Grant
• TAS: State Revenue Office Tasmania: First Home Owner Grant
• ACT: ACT Revenue Office (Home Buyer Concession Scheme)
• NT: Northern Territory Government: home owner assistance
• Federal: Home Guarantee Scheme: Housing Australia (First Home Guarantee and Family Home Guarantee, including current price and place caps)
• Federal: First Home Super Saver Scheme: Australian Taxation Office

Sources verified 25 July 2026. First home buyer grants, concessions, caps, and eligibility change frequently and differ by state and region; always confirm the current figures with the relevant authority above.