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 valued at up to $750,000. It is administered by the State Revenue Office.
This page explains the grant for buyers in Warrandyte and the surrounding Manningham suburbs, where Your Mortgage Broker Warrandyte arranges home loans through a panel of lenders. It covers eligibility, property rules, how the grant interacts with duty relief, applications, and the reasons applications get knocked back.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The grant is worth $10,000, paid once per eligible transaction, and the same amount applies statewide. That surprises a lot of buyers who remember the old dual-rate era, when regional buyers received a larger payment than those in metropolitan Melbourne. Those days are gone: the separate regional first home owner grant is a closed scheme and does not apply to current contracts, no matter where in Victoria you buy. The State Revenue Office is the source for the current figure, and it has held at this level for some time. What the flat statewide amount means in practice is that location no longer changes the grant itself. What changes the outcome is the type of property you buy and its value, because the eligibility rules, not the postcode, decide whether the money arrives. That distinction matters enormously in an established suburb like Warrandyte, which this page returns to below.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility is tested against each applicant, and against their partner, even if the partner is not going on the title or the loan. The State Revenue Office eligibility page sets out the full test, and these are the points that decide most applications:
Natural persons only
Age requirement
Citizenship or residency
The prior ownership bar
The residency commitment
The application window
The prior ownership bar is the one that catches couples. If one partner owned and lived in an apartment years ago, even briefly and even interstate, the joint application fails the test. Check it before you sign a contract, not after.
Which Properties It Covers
The grant and the separate duty relief scheme cover different property types and different value bands, and keeping them straight in one table is the fastest way to see what applies to your purchase:
| Feature | First Home Owner Grant | First home buyer duty relief |
|---|---|---|
| Property type | New home, substantially renovated home, or a build replacing a demolished one | New home, established home, or vacant land to build on |
| Established home | Not eligible at any price | Eligible |
| Full relief or payment | $10,000 once per transaction | Full duty exemption up to $600,000 |
| Upper band | Value cap of $750,000 | Concession on a sliding scale from $600,001 to $750,000 |
| Occupancy rule | 12 months within 12 months of settlement or completion | 12 continuous months within 12 months of settlement |
| Administered by | State Revenue Office | State Revenue Office |
Both schemes are detailed on the SRO duty page. Note that the two value caps are related but not identical, and neither cap has anything to do with your borrowing capacity, which is assessed separately by lenders.
Why The Rule Bites Here
The new-home-only rule matters more in some suburbs than others, and Warrandyte is one of the places it bites hardest. The local housing stock, the building pipeline and the price structure all narrow what an eligible buyer can actually purchase.
The Stock Is Established
Almost every dwelling here is a separate house, and the census facts table records no apartment stock at all in Warrandyte. Established housing dominates to a degree few Melbourne suburbs match, which means nearly every home for sale locally is ineligible for the grant regardless of the buyer's circumstances.
The Building Pipeline Is Thin
Dwelling approvals across the last five years reached 108 in Warrandyte, which is modest by metropolitan standards. New homes that could qualify for the grant do appear, but they trickle onto the market rather than flowing, so eligible stock competes with the whole first buyer market when it lists.
What Eligible Stock Looks Like
The eligible homes that do appear are typically knockdown rebuilds, substantially renovated properties and the occasional new build on a subdivided block. The suburb's housing profile, with 63.1 per cent of dwellings offering four or more bedrooms, means much of the stock sits above first buyer budgets even before the grant rules narrow the field further.
What This Means For Your Search
If the grant is central to your budget, expect to broaden the search beyond Warrandyte itself, or to consider house-and-land or off-the-plan options further out. Our first home buyer loans page covers financing for both paths, and the honest advice is to price both before choosing.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The grant and the duty exemption or concession are separate schemes, run separately, and stacking them is where the real value sits for a new-home buyer:
New home up to $600,000
New home from $600,001 to $750,000
Established home under $750,000
Vacant land to build on
Once only
The single most common confusion is treating the $600,000 and $750,000 duty thresholds as if they were the grant cap. They are different schemes with different rules, and a purchase can qualify for one and not the other. If the stacking arithmetic decides your budget, our guarantor and low deposit page covers how a family guarantee can shrink the deposit hurdle alongside these government schemes.
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
The application itself is not difficult, but the timing rules and the paperwork trip up enough buyers that it pays to know the sequence before settlement day approaches.
- 1
Choose Your Lodgement Route
Most buyers lodge through an approved agent, which in practice means their lender handles the application alongside the loan. The alternative is applying directly with the State Revenue Office. The lender route is usually smoother because the same documents serve both processes, and we coordinate it as part of the loan application.
- 2
Gather The Evidence
Expect to provide identity documents, the contract of sale or building contract, evidence of the transaction value and, where relevant, declarations about prior property ownership for every applicant and their partners. Lenders applying on your behalf will tell you exactly what their process requires, so ask early rather than discovering the list at settlement.
- 3
Mind The Deadline
Applications must be lodged within 12 months of settlement or, for a build, within 12 months of completion of construction. Miss that window and the grant is gone, so diarise it the day you settle. Occupancy declarations come later, but the application itself cannot wait.
- 4
When The Money Actually Arrives
The SRO pages do not publish fixed payment dates, so the honest answer is that the grant is paid once the eligible transaction completes and the application is processed, with no promised timeline. Do not build a deposit plan around a specific payment date; treat it as a bonus that arrives after the event rather than money available at it.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
The knock-back reasons are consistent and almost all of them are avoidable with a contract read before signing rather than after:
- Buying an established home And assuming it qualifies. It does not, at any price, and this is the single most common misunderstanding we see among first buyers.
- A previously tenanted "new" home A home that has been leased out or used for short-term accommodation before purchase fails the never-occupied test, no matter how new it looks.
- Contract price over $750,000 For off-the-plan purchases the contract price is the test, so a valuation blowout after signing does not rescue an ineligible contract.
- Broken occupancy Not living in the home for the full 12 continuous months, or starting occupation more than 12 months after settlement or completion, puts the grant at risk of clawback.
- Prior ownership or a prior grant By any applicant or their partner, including a property owned and occupied for six continuous months or more since July 2000.
- Applying as a company or trust Which is ineligible outright regardless of who ultimately lives in the home.
- Missing the 12-month application deadline After settlement or completion.
The clawback point deserves emphasis: eligibility is checked at application, but the occupancy rule is enforced afterwards. Renting the place out in month five can cost you the grant retroactively.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Warrandyte works with first home buyers across Warrandyte and the wider Manningham area, including Wonga Park, Warrandyte South, Park Orchards, Donvale and Templestowe. Each suburb page covers the local property mix and how lending works there, and our About page explains who handles your file and how the business is licensed.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the VIC First Home Owner Grant worth?
The grant pays $10,000 once per eligible transaction, and the same amount applies across Victoria. The separate regional grant scheme is closed and does not apply to current contracts.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. The grant covers new homes never sold or occupied as a residence, substantially renovated homes, and homes built to replace a demolished one. Established homes qualify for duty relief instead.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
The property must be valued at up to $750,000. For off-the-plan purchases, the contract price is used rather than the completed valuation.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Yes. At least one applicant must move in within 12 months of settlement or completion and live there as their principal place of residence for at least 12 continuous months.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are separate schemes. The duty exemption applies to homes up to $600,000 and a concession runs to $750,000, covering new and established homes and vacant land.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
The SRO does not publish fixed payment dates; the grant is paid once the eligible transaction completes. You must lodge within 12 months of settlement or completion.
Mortgage broker for Warrandyte and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing the grant against duty relief and working out what you can actually borrow, a short conversation puts real numbers on it. Call (03) 9122 8521 to talk through your position with a broker working under Australian Credit Licence 389328, with our fee and commission structure published upfront. You can also read more on our construction loans page if a build is the likelier path.