Thinking about building your first home? The Federal Government has just launched a $25,000 scheme that makes buying your first home more attractive than at any time in recent history. Coupled with state first home buyer rebates and stamp duty concessions, together with incentives now being offered by developers trying to combat the effects of Covid-19, collective incentives for first home buyers can easily amount to over $50,000.
If you are not a first home buyer, but can afford to renovate luckily, the Federal Government’s got your back as well.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has begun sharing the first details of the government’s $668 million ‘HomeBuilder’ scheme. The scheme will fund grants worth $25,000 for home renovations between the 4th of June and 31st of December, 2020. The goal is to drive a “tradie-led” recovery, according to the prime minister, with the fund to (hopefully) cover builds in 30,000 homes before New Years Eve, 2020.
To be eligible, single applicants must earn less than $125,000 a year or $200,000 per couple. New homes valued up to $750,000 will qualify as will renovations between $150,000 and $750,000 that result in the property being worth less than $1.5 million. You can also choose to use the grant for “substantial” renovations to your current principal place of residence, where the renovation contract is between $150,000-$750,000, and the value of the existing house and land does not exceed $1.5 million. If you want to use the money for building a new house, that is also possible, but the total value of the land and build cannot exceed $750,000 (first home buyers, take note of this!).
A means test will be applied to the new stimulus grant. Bank lenders will be responsible for checking applicants income over the previous financial year.
“If you’ve been putting off that renovation or new build, the extra $25,000 we’re putting on the table along with record low interest rates means now’s the time to get started,” Morrison said.
The Prime Minister has not ruled out including major renovations in the scheme but stressed it was “big projects” that employed tradies and supported jobs was the focus of the scheme, not DIY projects at home.
One of the stipulations of the scheme is that the construction/renovation project begins within three months of the contract date.
The new scheme will also be designed to help bushfire victims who lost their homes as fires raged across the country over summer rebuild their lives and homes including “bushfire-proofing” their properties.
The new scheme is great for first home buyers, as the scheme is designed to work alongside other grants/schemes that are currently running. This means that as a FHB, if you could qualify for the First Home Owner’s Grant ($15,000 if you’re in Queensland, for example), and the Home Builder Scheme ($25,000), you could potentially have an extra $40,000 to spend on your new home. This is on top of any super contributions you might want to make under the new Early Super Access scheme, and any tax breaks or concessions that you qualify for. In short, you could be saving a lot of money.
You can find out more about the HomeBuilder scheme by clicking the button below.
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