First Home Buyers

The FHOG Victoria is only available if you buy a newly built home or if you choose to build a home from scratch. The FHOG is worth $10,000 if you build/buy in Melbourne. Or you can receive a FHOG of $20,000 if you buy/build a new home in regional Victoria.

Your first home can be a house, townhouse, apartment, or unit but it must be valued at $750,000 or less, and it must be a new home – being sold as a home for the first time, and less than five years old.

The FHOG Victoria is not available if you buy a holiday home or investment property.

Applying for the First Home Owner Grant is easy, and your Mortgage Choice broker can guide you through the paperwork. Simply fill out the form below and a local expert will be in contact with you shortly.

For contracts entered into between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2020, the Victorian Government will provide a $20,000 grant to first home buyers purchasing or building new properties in regional Victoria up to the value of $750,000.

If you are a first home buyer purchasing an off the plan property, you may be entitled to a concession.

Under the terms of the concession, first home buyers will pay duty on the value of the property and construction at the time of the contract date. Generally speaking, when a contract is entered into for an off the plan property purchase, construction won’t have started or hasn’t yet been completed. As such, first home buyers won’t have to pay as much in duty.

Unfortunately, only first home buyers who occupy the property as their principal place of residence will be eligible for the concession.

To be eligible for the FHOG in Victoria, you’ll need to meet several conditions:You or your spouse/partner must not have previously received a FHOG in Australia

You must not have owned a home or other residential property in Australia, either jointly or separately, before 1 July 2000. However, you may still be eligible for the FHOG if you or your spouse/partner owned property on or after 1 July 2000 but did not live there as your home.

You must occupy the home for at least 12 months within 12 months of settling on the property (this is when the keys are handed to you) or from when the home is fully built.

You must be aged 18 or over and be an Australian citizen or permanent resident either by the time you settle or when the home is ready to be occupied.

First home owners in Victoria don’t pay stamp duty at all on their first home as long as the property is valued below $600,000. That’s a saving of around $31,000! You may still be eligible for savings on stamp duty if you pay between $600,000 and $750,000 for your first home. For example, if you pay $605,000 for your first home, you’ll pay stamp duty of $1,045. However, if your fist home costs $745,000, the cost of stamp duty rises to $38,444.

The good news is that these stamp duty savings are available to first home owners in Victoria no matter whether you buy an established or existing home rather than a newly built home.

Under the terms of the new Pilot Shared Equity Scheme, eligible first home buyers will only need to have a 5% deposit in order to buy a home. The Victorian State Government takes a proportional interest of up to 25% in the property.

First home buyers will then be able to take out a loan that is worth 70% of the value of the home (thanks to their 5% deposit and the Government’s 25% stake in the property).

Once the first home buyer sells the property, they will just have to repay the Government’s proportional interest.

To be eligible for the Government support, singles must be earning an annual income of $75,000 or less and couples must have a combined household income of $95,000 or less.