QLD First Home Owner Grant - $30,000 for New Homes

What Is This Payment?

The Queensland First Home Owner Grant is a one-off cash grant tagged in the rule database as a monetary primary Group A benefit inside the QLD Property Concessions cluster. Its entitlement scope is per individual and one-off, meaning the grant is paid once in a person's lifetime - if you receive it on this purchase, you cannot claim it again on a later first-home transaction.

The administering body is the Queensland Revenue Office (QRO). Applications are submitted online either directly through the QRO portal or via your approved agent (typically your conveyancer, solicitor, or lender). When the grant is lodged through a financial institution it is usually paid at settlement; when lodged direct with QRO it is paid after settlement is recorded.

The rule's design intent is narrow. Unlike the QLD First Home Concession - which is a transfer-duty relief on the duty assessment - FHOG is fresh cash injected into the buyer's settlement to help with deposit, fit-out, or stamp duty itself. It targets new construction specifically because state housing policy is trying to lift new supply, not subsidise resale stock. The grant was $15,000 before the 20 November 2023 boost lifted it to $30,000; rather than reverting to $15,000 on 30 June 2026 as originally legislated, the 2026-27 Queensland Budget made the $30,000 ongoing for contracts signed from 1 July 2026 onward.

How Much Can You Get?

The amount block is fixed at $30,000 with no formula, no taper, and no income test. The display period is one_time, which means the figure is paid as a single grant per eligible purchase rather than spread across instalments.

Two numeric facts drive the dollar outcome:

• $30,000 grant amount - the grant for eligible contracts dated from 20 November 2023 onward. The $30,000 was originally legislated to run to 30 June 2026 and then drop to $15,000; the 2026-27 Queensland Budget continued the $30,000 for contracts signed from 1 July 2026 onward, so the amount no longer reverts.
• $750,000 property cap - the total value of the home plus land must be at or below this figure. The cap is binary, meaning a contract priced at $750,001 fails entirely; there is no scaled or partial grant above the cap.

An audit recipe to verify your figure: first confirm the contract execution date is on or after 20 November 2023 (contracts from 1 July 2026 still receive the continued $30,000); second confirm the dutiable value of the home (home plus land) is no greater than $750,000; third confirm the home has never been lived in or sold as a place of residence; fourth confirm neither you nor your spouse has previously owned residential property in Australia; finally confirm the occupancy plan (move in within 1 year, stay 6 months continuously). If all five hold, the payable amount is the flat $30,000 - no multiplier, no reduces_if clause, and no date_windows nesting beyond the contract-date boundary.

For owner-builders the timing rule works the same way: the foundations of the new home must be laid (concrete slab poured, or equivalent first structural work) on or after 20 November 2023. A contract date does not exist for owner-builders, so QRO uses the foundation-laying date as the effective trigger. With the 2026-27 Budget continuation, foundations laid from 1 July 2026 onward also qualify for the full $30,000.

Eligibility Conditions

The eligibility block is an all set, so every item must pass. The excludes.any block is empty, but several implicit gates flow from the rule notes and the underlying First Home Owner Grant Act.

1. Queensland location: state = QLD. The home must be in Queensland; interstate purchases route to that state's own grant scheme.
2. First-home buyer status: first_home_buyer = true. Neither you nor your spouse can have previously owned a residential property in Australia, whether as a home or an investment. A previously-owned investment property held before 1 July 2000 may be allowed as an exception under the Act.
3. New home purchase: purchasing_new_home = true. This includes brand-new homes never lived in, off-the-plan apartments, house-and-land packages, and substantially renovated homes where the seller has rebuilt enough of the structure to qualify under the QRO definition. Established resale homes do not qualify.

Required fields for assessment: state, first_home_buyer, purchasing_new_home. Income, assets, and concession-card status are not tested.

Two practical considerations sit on top of the YAML conditions. First, you must be at least 18 years old at the contract date. Second, you must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and at least one applicant on the application must satisfy this. The grant is paid per transaction, not per applicant, so a couple buying together still receives a single $30,000 amount.

How To Apply

Application metadata defines a single channel: online. The portal sits under the QRO website, and most buyers lodge through their bank, conveyancer, or solicitor as an approved agent so that the grant flows directly into the settlement funds pool.

Evidence requirements are explicitly listed in the rule and should be prepared in advance:

• Contract of sale - signed and dated, showing the purchase price and the new-home representation
• Identity documents - proof of name, date of birth, citizenship or permanent residency, and current residential address for every applicant

Two practical tips help. First, check the contract date carefully on day one - QRO uses the contract execution date, not the settlement date, to assess eligibility. With the 2026-27 Budget continuation, a contract signed on or after 1 July 2026 now also qualifies for the full $30,000, so there is no longer a deadline to beat. Second, lodge through your lender wherever possible, because the bank can apply the grant to your contribution at settlement and reduce the cash you need to bring to the table.

Apply on the official Queensland Revenue Office page

Rule-Based Scenarios

Scenario 1: New townhouse at $620,000 - eligible at full $30,000

Saoirse-Mae signs a contract for a brand-new townhouse in Logan on 14 February 2026 at a price of $620,000. She is 26, single, Australian citizen, and has never owned property. Because state = QLD, first_home_buyer = true, and purchasing_new_home = true all pass, and the contract date is on or after 20 November 2023 with the price below the $750,000 cap, QRO approves the full $30,000 grant. Her lender applies it at settlement, reducing her cash contribution by $30,000. She must move in by mid-2027 and stay six months.

Scenario 2: Established home at $580,000 - FHOG fails, FHC saves $9,000+

Lior-Ann finds a 1990s brick-veneer house at $580,000 in Bundaberg and assumes both first-home schemes will pay out. The eligibility check fails on purchasing_new_home = true because the house has been lived in for thirty years. FHOG returns not eligible and the $30,000 stays on the table. However the QLD First Home Concession - which accepts both new and resale homes - applies, exempting all $9,495 of transfer duty on the $580,000 purchase. The lesson is that FHOG and FHC have different new-versus-resale gates, and the resale-only buyer takes only the duty relief.

Scenario 3: New apartment at $760,000 - blocked by the $750,000 cap

Phaedra contracts for a new off-the-plan apartment in Brisbane at $760,000 on 8 March 2026. She is a first-home buyer purchasing a brand-new dwelling, so two of the three structured fields pass. The cap, however, is binary: $760,000 exceeds $750,000, and the rule does not taper - QRO rejects the FHOG application in full. Phaedra recovers some value by claiming the QLD First Home Concession at the $760,000 price band, which still produces a partial duty saving on the $700,000 to $800,000 sliding scale.

Scenario 4: Owner-builder slab in July 2026 - full $30,000 secured

Beren is an owner-builder constructing a new home on family land in the Lockyer Valley. He registers his project with QRO and is on track to pour the foundation slab on 15 July 2026. Because owner-builders use the foundation-laying date in place of a contract date, and the 2026-27 Queensland Budget continued the $30,000 for foundations laid from 1 July 2026 onward, his 15 July 2026 pour secures the full $30,000 grant. There is no longer any need to rush the pour to beat a deadline - the boost no longer reverts to $15,000.

Common Mistakes

• Reading the contract date as the settlement date: QRO assesses eligibility on the contract execution date, not the settlement date. This matters for the occupancy and value tests rather than any deadline - with the $30,000 continued for contracts from 1 July 2026 onward, there is no expiry to time your contract around.
• Treating the $750,000 cap as a sliding scale: the property cap is a hard binary cut-off, not a taper. A $750,001 home receives nothing under FHOG, while a $750,000 home receives the full $30,000. There is no proportional grant above the cap, unlike the First Home Concession's $700,000 to $800,000 sliding scale.
• Misreading the owner-builder trigger date: owner-builders without a sale contract are assessed on the foundation-laying date, not the date they submit a building application. Lodging council paperwork does not lock in the grant; the structural foundations must actually be laid for the $30,000 to apply (foundations laid from 1 July 2026 onward still qualify under the continued grant).
• Confusing the 1-year occupancy deadline with the 6-month residence rule: these are two separate clocks. You have up to 1 year from completion to move in, and once moved in you must remain in continuous occupation for at least 6 months. Selling or renting out the home in month four after moving in triggers a clawback of the grant.
• Assuming established homes qualify because you are a first-home buyer: first-home-buyer status is necessary but not sufficient. The purchasing_new_home = true condition is the hard gate that excludes resale houses from FHOG even when every other field passes. The First Home Concession is the resale-friendly companion.
• Confusing FHOG with the First Home Concession: the two are separate. FHOG is the $30,000 cash grant for new homes only, while the First Home Concession is transfer-duty relief that also covers resale homes. Buyers sometimes assume one application captures both - they are lodged and assessed independently, and only FHOG is restricted to brand-new dwellings.

Related Benefits

The conflicts and affects lists in the YAML are empty, meaning FHOG can stack with most other Queensland and federal first-home incentives. Use these links to navigate the surrounding rules in the typical home-purchase journey.

• QLD First Home Concession - Stamp Duty Free up to $700k - companion duty concession for the same buyer profile, but covers both new and resale homes up to $700,000 fully and $700,000 to $800,000 partially. Stacks with FHOG on the same purchase.
• Queensland Electricity Rebate - ongoing $399.47 annual electricity bill relief once you move in, contingent on holding a Pensioner Concession Card or Seniors Card; unrelated to first-home status but relevant to the next bill cycle.
• QLD Cost of Living Bill Relief - federally co-funded electricity bill rebate that reaches every Queensland household automatically; a useful baseline relief for new owners who are not on a concession card.
• QLD Bond Loan - interest-free bond loan for renters who are not yet on the FHOG path; runs in the opposite direction along the housing lifecycle.
• QLD RentStart Bond Loan and Rental Grant - companion rental subsidy for households still in private rental during their savings phase, before they qualify for FHOG on a new home.
• QLD Home Energy Emergency Assistance Scheme - a separate hardship payment, not a stacking concession, but useful if a new owner faces an unexpected energy bill crisis in the first year of ownership.

Frequently Asked Questions