VIC first home buyers
VIC First Home Owner Grant
The VIC First Home Owner Grant is a one-off payment from the Victorian Government to eligible first home buyers who buy or build a new home in Victoria, subject to property value caps, residency rules and prior ownership tests administered by the State Revenue Office.
This page sets out what the grant is worth, who qualifies and which properties it covers, then connects the eligibility rules to the housing stock actually available around Croydon Hills. Your Mortgage Broker Croydon Hills(https://gbp-link-placeholder) covers the rules as published by the SRO, the duty relief that sits alongside the grant, and the application process end to end.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The grant pays a one-off $10,000, and that amount is uniform across the entire state, which surprises buyers who remember the old regional top-up. A separate grant for regional Victoria did exist, but that scheme is closed and does not apply to current contracts, no matter where in Victoria you buy. So a first home buyer in Croydon Hills and one in Mildura are chasing the same payment. The figure has been stable for some years, which makes planning around it straightforward, but the eligibility rules attached to it do the real work, and those rules exclude far more buyers than the amount itself suggests.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility is assessed per applicant, and every person on the contract has to satisfy the tests, not just the primary buyer. The SRO's eligibility page sets out the full detail, and the headline conditions are these:
Natural persons only
Age requirement
Citizenship or residency
First ownership test
Genuine occupancy
Application deadline
Which Properties It Covers
The grant attaches to the property, not the buyer, so the type of home you sign a contract on decides everything before eligibility is even tested. The table below is the quickest way to check whether a property you are looking at qualifies:
| Property type | Grant eligible? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| New house, townhouse, apartment or unit, never sold or occupied | Yes | Must never have been sold, leased or used for short-term accommodation |
| Substantially renovated home | Yes | The renovation must have created a new home, per the SRO's definition |
| Home built to replace a demolished one | Yes | Treated as a new build for grant purposes |
| Off-the-plan purchase | Yes | Value cap tested against the contract price |
| Established home, any price | No | No grant at any value, though separate duty relief may apply |
| Home previously leased or used as short-stay accommodation | No | Past use disqualifies it even if it has never been sold |
Why The Rule Bites Here
Croydon Hills is the wrong suburb for grant-hunters on first inspection, and the Census facts explain why. The suburb records 99.9 per cent of dwellings as separate houses and 0.0 per cent as flats or apartments, across just 1,621 dwellings in total. That is an established, owner-occupier market, and established homes do not qualify for the grant at any price.
Where eligible stock actually sits
A total of 177 dwellings were approved across the last five years, which puts Croydon Hills at the forty-sixth state percentile for building activity, so genuinely new housing trickles out slowly. Those approvals convert into the only grant-eligible product in the area: fresh builds, substantially renovated homes and the occasional off-the-plan release. Buyers need to look at knockdown-rebuild blocks and new estates on the suburb's edges rather than the established streets.
The gap between eligible and desirable
The homes being built new here are rarely the four-plus bedroom family houses that make up 58.4 per cent of the existing stock, and a buyer with a budget under the grant's value cap will find the overlap between what is new, what is local and what fits the cap is narrow. That pushes many first buyers to widen the search, and nearby suburbs with more building activity widen it usefully.
What it means for your search
Practically, a grant-motivated buyer in postcode 3136 should be watching two things: new dwelling approvals and turnover of recently completed builds that have never been occupied. It also means being honest about whether the grant is worth chasing at all, because the duty relief described below applies to established homes too, and established homes dominate the local market by a factor of nearly everything.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
Here is the part most first buyers miss: the duty exemption or concession is a separate scheme with its own thresholds, its own occupancy rule and its own once-only limit, and it covers property types the grant ignores:
Full duty exemption to $600,000
Concession band from $600,001 to $750,000
Established homes count
Vacant land qualifies
Both schemes stack
Once only
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
The application process has two routes and one hard deadline, and getting the sequence right matters because some evidence is much easier to gather before settlement than after.
- 1
Choose your lodgement route
Most buyers lodge through an approved agent, which in practice means their lender, because the application travels with the loan process and the lender validates eligibility documents as part of its own checks. Alternatively, you can apply directly to the SRO after settlement, which suits buyers paying cash or whose lender does not participate.
- 2
Gather your evidence early
Expect to prove identity, citizenship or residency status, and the transaction details, and if any applicant's history includes prior property ownership, records showing it falls outside the ownership bar. Gathering these before settlement is far easier than reconstructing them afterwards.
- 3
Mind the deadline
You have twelve months from settlement, or from completion of the build, to lodge the application, and the SRO does not extend this for oversight. Diarise it when you sign the contract, not when you move in.
- 4
Expect payment on completion
The SRO's published material does not promise fixed payment dates, so the honest position is that the grant is paid once the eligible transaction completes. Your lender, if lodging as the approved agent, can usually tell you how it applies the payment once received.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
Most refusals are not fraud cases, they are buyers who assumed a rule that was not actually there. These are the failure modes the SRO's guidance flags most plainly:
- Buying established The single most common mistake: assuming the grant applies to an established home because the buyer is a first timer. It does not, at any price.
- Tainted "new" homes A home that has been leased out or used for short-term accommodation before purchase is disqualified, even if it has never been sold, so ask about tenancy history before you sign.
- Busting the cap A contract price above $750,000 forfeits the grant, and for off-the-plan purchases it is the contract price that is tested, not the end value.
- Breaking occupancy Failing to live in the home for the full twelve continuous months, or moving in later than twelve months after settlement or completion, jeopardises the payment.
- Hidden history A prior grant, or a partner's prior ownership and occupation of a home for six continuous months or more, disqualifies everyone on the contract.
- Wrong structure, wrong timing Applying as a company or trust fails outright, and so does an application lodged after the twelve-month deadline.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Croydon Hills arranges home loan finance across the City of Maroondah and the surrounding east, and the same first home buyer conversations happen in every one of these suburbs: Wonga Park, Croydon North, Croydon, Ringwood, Warranwood and Warrandyte South. Wherever you are looking, the grant rules are identical and the local stock is not.
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 right across Victoria. There is no separate regional payment on current contracts, because the old regional scheme is closed.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. The grant only applies to new homes, substantially renovated homes, or homes built to replace a demolished one. An established home attracts no grant at any price, though duty relief may still apply.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
The home must be valued at up to $750,000. For off-the-plan purchases, the test is applied 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 within twelve months of settlement or completion and live there as their principal place of residence for at least twelve continuous months.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are separate schemes. The duty exemption or concession is run by the SRO on its own thresholds, a full exemption up to $600,000 and a concession to $750,000, and both can be claimed together.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
The SRO does not publish fixed payment dates. Payment is made once the eligible transaction completes, and applications must be lodged within twelve months of settlement or completion.
Mortgage broker for Croydon Hills and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing a new build against an established home and want to understand how the grant and duty relief change the maths, call (03) 9122 8522. You will speak with Your Mortgage Broker Croydon Hills, a real, named broker working under Australian Credit Licence 389328, with the fee and commission structure published upfront and the process and timelines spelled out before you commit to anything.