Buying your first home can be one of the most exciting experiences, and also the most daunting. To assist you on your first steps in your real estate journey, we have put together a guide on what to look out for, and what concessions and assistance is currently on offer for first home buyers.
What to watch out for:
- Emotion – This is a hard one because the excitement of buying your first home can often cloud rational thinking. Your first home will probably not be your forever home so try and think of it more as an investment, and make the decision based on fact rather than the feels.
- Background check – Building and pest inspections are a must, and in the case of unit and apartments do a thorough search and check on the strata report. This can avoid any nasty surprises later.
- Cost plus plus– The cost of the home is not the only sum you need to be aware of. Stamp duty, conveyancing costs, legal fees, body corporate costs, maintenance, moving costs, insurances, rates, mortgage fees all need to factored in.
- Finance pre- approval. Have this done well ahead of time so that you know how much you can afford to spend on the property and will minimise any risk of over extending yourself.
- Contract – Take the time to look at and get professional advice on the sale contract.
What’s on offer:
The Queensland First Home Owners’ Grant offers $15,000 to first-time owners buying or building a new home. The grant is available for properties valued at less than $750,000.
Regional home building boost grant
The Queensland state government is also offering a $5,000 grant for first home buyers building a new house, unit or townhouse in regional Queensland valued at $749,999 or less.
To qualify for this grant you need to be aged 18 or older, a permanent resident or citizen and you must not have received this grant before.
This grant is only available for a short time. Your building contract must be entered into between 16 June 2020 and 31 December 2020.
You need to build your new home in one of the following areas:
- Cairns
- Central Queensland
- Darling Downs Maranoa
- Mackay-Isaac-Whitsunday
- Queensland-Outback
- Toowomba
- Townsville
- Wide Bay
Are transfer duty (stamp duty) concessions available?
Yes, stamp duty concessions are available if you buy a home valued less than $550,000 or vacant land less than $400,000. The more you pay for your home or land within these limits, the smaller the concession available.
For more information go to Queensland Government advice and concessions for first home buyers
In a news article published on the 16th June, an additional stimulus has been created to further assist the construction industry.
“Regional Queenslanders who buy a newly constructed home will get $5000 from the state government as part of a package to boost the construction industry.
That’s on top of the existing $15,000 available to all Queenslanders who are first home buyers who buy new properties worth less than $750,000 – a program premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Tuesday would be extended.”
As always, your accountant or financial advisor will be able to assist you fully to ensure you are eligible and access all that is currently on offer.
To help you find the property that best suits your needs, and make your dream of home ownership become a reality, talk to your local Stone agent who is there to assist you wherever possible.
