I am a first home buyer in WA about to purchase a property that was built in 2016.
I really wanted to get the $10k FHOG but it looks like I have to BUILD or purchase a BRAND NEW house to be eligible for the grant.
I am a bit disappointed to miss on $10k, as the property I am about to buy is established ..
What are your thoughts? Are there any other grants that can be accessed when buying an established home apart from stamp duty exclusion?
You didn't really lose $10k as it wasn't yours to begin with.
Is that what mummy said?
savage
Yeah, it's pretty slim pickings unless you're looking for a brand new apartment. We didn't get it for our house either, not new and too expensive. If you aren't looking for a home to live in for a long time, start off with a good brand new apartment and you should get about a 5% discount thanks to the $10k FHO grant + $20k stamp duty exemption.
At least the stamp duty laws are getting better, in states like NSW it's better than the first home buyer's grant as it's eligible for existing homes now.
Of course, the point is to add to the states housing stock
I wanted to get jobkeeper too but I was ineligible because I still had a job. I am disappointed to lose 3k per month.
Yep, wanted to get the parental leave payment for my parents but was ineligible because I'm a grown man. Means they literally lost a couple grand because of this.
Ridiculous really.
Well, my neighbor's baby daughter applied for the Age Pension and was rejected as well.
Clearly a gender based discrimination.
Appalling.
It amazes me that people like this just mindlessly jump into a massive life changing decision and still have very rudimentary questions like this that can we answered with 15 minutes of research.
OP not attacking you as you are not alone, but seriously people please do your research. This is basic stuff that you should have down pat months before you even think about committing to buying property.
can we answered with 15 minutes of research.
More like 5 minutes of google searching.
Not sure if OP actually wants an answer or just wanted an OzWhinge.
5 Minutes? How long did it take OP to type up this drivel? lol
OP is trolling. Have a look at the snarky response to capslock above.
OP is desperately asking us to console them for loss of $10K that wasn't theirs to begin with.
Seriously, WTF! You buy your first house, and then learn about FHOG?
I was going to do lotto the other night but didn't buy a ticket, think how bad I feel that I lost $80m.
In April your weekly income dropped by 3/4 to $250 due to COVD and now you are planning to buy a house in these uncertain times. How does that work?
In the other dimension, duh
Maybe the OP bought the lotto ticket that onetwothreefour didn't…
Well yeah, that's why he really wants the free $10k.
Just borrow 100% of capital cause uncle Slowmo will guarantee your loan.
OP had the pre-approval … use it or lose it … YOLO!
How do you lose something you never had?
I really wanted the assistance as well 20 odd years ago. Can the government back date all the incentives for buying a property to me now. Jobkeeper going well then.
Easy just do a minimum 150K extention before years end for 25K : substantially renovate your existing home as a principal place of residence, where the renovation contract is between $150,000 and $750,000, and where the value of your existing property (house and land) does not exceed $1.5 million .
Sorry Scomo created this for his m8's your probably not in :)
Maybe: if less than $400K
Home buyers assistance account
https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consumer-protection/home-buye…
Unfortunately they have a no old babies policy on the baby bonus, too. That's money straight down the gurgler.
Thought the grant was a stimulus, how is giving money to buy and existing built home stimulating anything except yourself.
Is this a serious question?
Pretty sure all the grant did is bump up the cost of new houses by 10k. You don't get anything from this anyway.
First home owner grant another one of those idiot ideas from both sides of government that did nothing but make housing more unaffordable for 1st home buyers in the long run and out more money into dodgy builders
Isn't the FHOG for when you purchase new or existing?
no
It was a long time ago but not for the better part of a decade. Just stamp duty concessions depending on value.
Depends on the state.
Buy a new house and stop whining
I bought an established property back when the grant was applicable to them, the property prices all increased due to the grant by that much or more, and as soon as the grant became 'for new properties only' prices of similar properties all dropped by even more. Basically the grant goes to builders / existing owners, it doesn't actually do much to help buyers in terms of money, about the only help is having a higher % deposit.
very much doubt that
I know how you feel… It sucks doesn't it?
My neighbour's going to get a larger tax refund than me. It's so unfair the tax office won't let me get his refund instead of my own smaller refund.
It's so unfair. I feel like I missed out on thousands of dollars.
The WA govt pulled it for established homes like 5 years ago. As jkart said, it's more of a bonus for sellers than buyers.
In my not particularly educated on the topic opinion, there is a lot of good value to be had right now buying established. Prices are really low especially in low/mid tier of the market because everyone is trying to build because of the grant.
I've been thinking about this too, and also mentally come to a similar conclusion. All the new grants and bonus' for new builds will create less demand in the existing home market and reduce prices.
Existing homes are always better value. (ok, 99.99999% of the time) unless you're putting in a bunch of the labour yourself that is. New homes are at a premium and homes depreciate over time (some due to actual wear and tear and some due to perception). You'll also generally get a home in a better / more established location for the same as a new one further out.
It might be the case that the grants distort that even more in favour of existing homes, but it's nothing new. Just about every apartment that sells within 5-10 years of constructions sells for less than the off the plan price, it was a really rare case when that didn't happen in Sydney for a few years.
Even if you did get it, its not $10k cash they just give you, it gets deducted from your mortgage amount.
Plus all it really does it drive up prices by $10k, because everyone else like you has it as well, so you pretty much break even.
I understand where youre coming from. The gov removed the fhog from first buyers to just ppl who build new homes to persuade ppl to build and stimulate the economy. However newly built homes arent great and it is unfair for new home buyers who just want to buy an existing home.
Rather if the gov ensured there were proper avenues of recourse and any new built home needs to pass stringent guidelines then more ppl would be inclined to build
New build homes (NSW apartments aside) tend to meet much stricter guidelines than older homes. My 1970's place isn't going to crack and fall apart but it's full of asbestos, windows that are thermally and acoustically transparent and no insulation……
But it costs more to build new than to buy, especially in established areas. If you look at homes that are 30+ years old you'll find an empty block of land in inner areas sells for not much if any less than one with a house on it. Then people need to spend $200-$500k more to put a new house on it. You need to get out of the capitals to find 'cheap new houses, it's really the location that makes most new houses not great.
TBH, unless you're ok with living miles from the city you should treat building as a premium option, get exactly what you want, for a little more money. Otherwise existing homes are generally great value. Though at the moment renting is great value….
Biggest scam there was.
Not quite
$10k grant now sounds great on paper
$10k now with a loss of $20-40k in a years time because you've bought a new house as property prices fall doesn't sound so good.
This, combined with the home start first home buyers trap isn't doing anything for first home buyers but putting more money into the back pockets of the sellers. Same thing happened with the childcare industry, no one wins except for the provider/seller
But hey, everything's a gamble just some are better educated than others
The grant itself is worthless. Homes are kinda like cars, they generally depreciate in value for the first few years, before regaining value. Plus you're getting much more bang for your buck from a lived-in home, than building your own.
The things you WILL take advantage of which will help immensely are the stamp duty reduction (provided you buy under $600k), and the reduced council rates in first year of ownership (provided your council does that).
Depreciate for a few years? People will happily pay more to get a house that's ready to go rather than go through the tedious task of building.
I totally agree with you. That's why i haven't jumped into building a brand new home even with $55k grants.
Also the building companies spiked the house and land prices as they have heard of extra government grants.
Full stamp duty reduction is applicable below $430k then scales out to $0 reduction at $530k in WA.
Unless I'm mistaken
No, you're correct.
Houses depreciate forever (significant renovations aside), land appreciates. About the only thing that makes buildings appreciate is significant inflation.
Yeah I recently bought a house and wasn't eligible for any grant due to being above the income and house cost thresholds.
I wasn't annoyed though - those grants aren't made for me.
Talk about being entitled.
I absolutely understand, some states basically get free stamp duty and a grant! Saving of 50k + is pretty insane, and sucks for some first home buyers in other states! It wasn't yours to begin with, however I do feel it's unfair it varies state to state and SA is the worse!
The fact that someone who makes 45k gets the same grant as someone who earns 120k is also extremely odd to me!
When I originally saw the criteria, I thought very few people would be eligible for either the first home builder grant or the renovation grant. The conditions seem to exclude most people. Not surprising from this government.
Thankfully it excludes most people. I don't necessarily want to pay for your extension.
I don't quite understand the purpose of the renovation grant, it's such a hard thing to both qualify for and still be worth doing. You'd need to live in a fairly small house, and it'd have to be in a house, because for the amount you need to spend to be worthwhile you'd have to be adding a bedroom or two (among other things). And that sort of thing is difficult to get to contract stage by the end of the year if you weren't going to be already doing it even without the grant…. And then the amount of the grant vs what you have to spend could easily be saved by taking longer in planning and shopping around.
Nevermind the 10K. I thought I would get a free house as a First Home Owner Grant. I am ready to accept the free new house as established houses are not qualified.
I clicked on this post. How bad do I feel for losing 10 minutes of my time….
When I bought my first home two years ago, there was no stamp duties exemption on established properties.
For eligible owner occupier first home buyers there has been in most states some stamp duty concessions since ~2009 ish? Unlucky or just a really expensive first home? It's not a total exemption above a certain amount.
Timing more than anything. In the end I bought off the plan and there were FHOG and Stamp Duty Exemption.
Remind us which states had stamp duty exemption for first home buyers? For established properties, it was removed only a few years ago in NSW:
https://www.nsw.gov.au/projects/a-fair-go-for-first-home-buy…
It's still in place for established properties up to $650k in NSW (full exemption) with concessional rate if you buy above that. Most states are similar (QLD it's $550k and again, discounts for properties above that).
They only really removed the grant for existing properties.
The point is to incentivize people to create more houses.
If you don't build it, you don't get the 10k.
It barely covers your stamp duty tbh anyway. 10k in the scheme of a house isn't much.
It barely covers your stamp duty tbh anyway. 10k in the scheme of a house isn't much.
First home owner stamp duty concessions are a separate incentive in WA.
https://www.wa.gov.au/government/publications/first-home-own…
You can still get it if the house is less than 5 years old.
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