VIC first home buyers
VIC First Home Owner Grant
The Victorian First Home Owner Grant is a one-off payment of $10,000 from the Victorian Government to eligible first home buyers who buy or build a new home in Victoria. It is administered by the State Revenue Office and claimed once per eligible transaction.
This page sets out the current rules: who qualifies, which properties are covered, how the grant interacts with the separate first home buyer duty scheme, and what the $750,000 value cap means for buyers searching around Narre Warren North. Your Mortgage Broker Narre Warren North maintains this page as part of its buyer education series, alongside the first home buyer loans service page.
A Flat $10,000, And Not a Dollar More Since the Cap Moved
The grant amount is a one-off payment of $10,000, and that figure surprises buyers who remember the old regional scheme paying more. That scheme is closed: it does not apply to current contracts, and the current arrangement is one flat amount statewide, whether the property sits in Narre Warren North, Berwick or Bendigo. The SRO confirms there is no metropolitan and regional split under the open scheme, so no buyer should plan around a higher regional payment. What varies is not the amount but whether the property qualifies, which is where most of the value of understanding the rules sits. A buyer who contracts on the wrong property type or over the value cap receives nothing, while a buyer who matches the eligibility list to the right stock collects the full payment on top of the separate duty relief covered later on this page.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility sits with the applicants as much as the property, and the SRO eligibility page tests each of the following:
Natural persons only
Age requirement
Citizenship or residency
First ownership test
Pre-2000 ownership
Post-2000 occupancy
The occupancy commitment
The partner test catches people out. If your spouse or de facto partner owned and lived in a property for six continuous months at any point since mid-2000, you are treated as having owned, even if the title never carried your name.
Which Properties It Covers
The property test is where applications succeed or fail, so the distinction between what qualifies and what does not is worth seeing side by side:
| Property type | Grant eligible? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| New house, townhouse, apartment or unit, never sold or occupied | Yes | Must never have been sold, leased out or used for short-term accommodation |
| Substantially renovated home | Yes | Renovation must be the most recent work and create a new home |
| Home built to replace a demolished one | Yes | The replacement home must meet the new home tests |
| Off-the-plan purchase | Yes | The value cap applies to the contract price |
| Established home, any price | No | No grant at any value, though duty relief may still apply |
| Property over $750,000 | No | Contract price over the cap disqualifies the transaction |
Two traps sit inside the "yes" rows. A display home or an investment property that was leased before sale fails the never-occupied test, and a short-stay listing history also disqualifies an otherwise new dwelling. Ask the vendor or builder directly and confirm the answer in writing before contracts are exchanged.
Why The Rule Bites Here
The value cap is the constraint that shapes the search in this pocket of Melbourne's south east, and the local facts table explains why.
Where the cap sits against local stock
Narre Warren North is a suburb of 2,224 dwellings, and 99.0 per cent of them are separate houses with 80.4 per cent carrying four or more bedrooms. That is substantial family stock on generous blocks, and it means the median established home here sits well beyond what the grant touches. Established homes are excluded from the grant at any price, so the cap matters mostly for the new-build segment of the market rather than the resale one.
Where eligible stock actually appears
Dwelling approvals tell you where the grant-eligible homes come from: 146 dwellings were approved across the last five years, though only 23 in 2021-22. At 0.3 per cent flats or apartments, there is almost no apartment product here, so eligible new stock is overwhelmingly house-and-land rebuilds and replacement dwellings rather than apartment lots, and it appears in pockets rather than estates.
The gap between eligible and desirable
Buyers face a genuine trade-off: the grant favours new homes under the cap, while the housing that dominates this suburb, large four-bedroom homes on acreage-style blocks, mostly fails both tests at once, being established and expensive. The buyers who capture the grant here are typically planning a knockdown rebuild or contracting on a substantially renovated replacement home, and both routes need construction lending structured around progress payments.
What that means for your search
If the grant is central to your budget, decide early whether you are chasing new stock within the cap or buying established and relying on the duty relief alone, because the two searches look nothing alike. Established buyers around Narre Warren North with family equity available often bridge the gap through a guarantor and low deposit structure instead of narrowing their search to grant-eligible properties.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The grant and the first home buyer duty exemption or concession are two separate schemes with separate thresholds, and buyers routinely confuse the two. The SRO duty page sets out the second scheme, and the differences matter:
Duty relief covers established homes
Full exemption to $600,000
A sliding concession to $750,000
Different occupancy rule, same shape
Vacant land timing differs
Once per buyer
Stacked together, the arithmetic is significant but price-dependent. A new home up to $600,000 can attract the full $10,000 grant and pay no duty at all, while between $600,001 and $750,000 the grant still applies but duty is reduced rather than removed. An established home gets no grant at any price, yet still qualifies for the duty exemption or concession below $750,000, which is why some first buyers around here choose established stock despite forgoing the grant.
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
The mechanics are simpler than the eligibility rules, and the SRO overview page confirms the routes and the deadline.
- 1
Two lodgement routes
Applications go through an approved agent, which in practice means your lender processes the claim alongside your home loan application, or directly with the SRO. The lender route is the common one because the grant can be factored into settlement figures, but either path ends in the same payment.
- 2
The 12-month deadline
You have 12 months from settlement, or from completion of the build, to lodge the application. Miss it and the entitlement lapses, so diary the date at settlement rather than trusting memory a year later.
- 3
When the money actually lands
The SRO does not publish fixed payment dates, and the timing depends on when the eligible transaction completes. Budget conservatively and do not promise yourself the grant before it is paid.
- 4
Keep your records
Retain the contract, evidence of the property's new status and your occupancy details, because the SRO can verify compliance with the residence requirement after payment has been made.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
The knock-back list is predictable, and every item on it was avoidable with one question asked before contracts were signed:
- Assuming established homes qualify The most common rejection, and the most expensive one, because the buyer discovers the exclusion after committing to a purchase.
- A "new" home with a history If the property was leased out or used for short-term accommodation before purchase, it fails the never-occupied test regardless of condition.
- Contracting over the cap A contract price above $750,000 disqualifies the transaction, including where the buyer believed the completed value would land lower.
- Breaking the residence commitment Not living in the home for 12 continuous months, or starting occupation more than 12 months after settlement or completion, triggers repayment.
- Prior ownership surfacing late A partner's previous property or grant, disclosed at application rather than before, unwinds an otherwise eligible file.
- Applying through the wrong entity Company and trust applicants are excluded outright, and some buyers discover this after structuring the purchase for other reasons.
- Missing the deadline Applications lodged more than 12 months after settlement or completion are out of time, with no discretion to extend.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Narre Warren North works with first home buyers across Melbourne's outer south east, and this grant's value cap shapes the search differently in each of them: Lysterfield, Narre Warren East, Harkaway, Berwick, Narre Warren and Hallam. Each suburb page sets out the local stock, the price position and what first buyers there actually buy.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the VIC First Home Owner Grant worth?
It is a one-off payment of $10,000, and the same amount applies across Victoria, including metropolitan Melbourne and regional areas. Only one grant is paid per eligible transaction.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. The grant only applies to new homes that have never been sold, occupied or leased out, substantially renovated homes, and homes built to replace a demolished one.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
The property must be worth up to $750,000. For an off-the-plan purchase, the cap applies to the contract price rather than the completed value.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Yes. At least one applicant must move in as their principal place of residence within 12 months of settlement or completion and stay for at least 12 continuous months.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are separate schemes. The grant pays $10,000 on eligible new homes. Duty relief is a separate exemption or concession that can also apply to established homes.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
The SRO does not publish fixed payment dates. You must apply within 12 months of settlement or completion, either through your lender as an approved agent or directly with the SRO.
Mortgage broker for Narre Warren North and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing the grant against established stock, or pricing a knockdown rebuild against the value cap, a conversation will map the numbers before you commit. Call (03) 9122 8521 to speak with a named, qualified broker. You deal with one accountable person from the first conversation to settlement, any fee that applies to your file is disclosed in writing, and the licence details behind the business are published on the About page.