QLD first home buyers
QLD First Home Owner Grant: A Heritage Park Buyer's Guide
The Queensland First Home Owner Grant is a state government payment of $30,000 to eligible first home buyers who buy or build a new home in Queensland valued under $750,000. It is administered by the Queensland Revenue Office and never applies to established homes.
This page sets out what the grant is worth, who qualifies, which properties it covers and how it stacks with duty relief, with the local picture for Heritage Park buyers drawn throughout. Your Mortgage Broker Heritage Park(/) is a mortgage broker serving Logan, and you can also read more on the about page.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The surprising fact is how many buyers still quote the wrong number: the $15,000 figure lingers on old websites and forum posts, yet it applies only to contracts signed before 20 November 2023. For contracts signed on or after that date, the grant is $30,000, and the Queensland Revenue Office landing page, which references the State Budget of 23 June 2026, states no change to that amount or to the value cap. Owner-builders get the same treatment, with the amount depending on when the foundations were laid. That $30,000 is real money toward a deposit, and in a suburb where a median household mortgage repayment sits around $1,733 a month, it covers a meaningful slice of early loan payments. The catch, covered below, is that the payment rules and the property rules are narrower than most buyers assume.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility turns on the person, not the property alone, and the Queensland Revenue Office tests each of the following points on the eligibility page:
Age and status
Citizenship
No prior ownership
Residence commitment
A new home only
Under the cap
Which Properties It Covers
The eligibility page draws a hard line between what counts as new and what does not, and the table below summarises it:
| Property type | Grant eligible? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| New house, unit, duplex or townhouse | Yes | Must never have been occupied or sold as a place of residence |
| Off-the-plan purchase | Yes | Treated as a new home if it meets the occupancy test |
| Contract to build (comprehensive contract) | Yes | Value test adds the land's unencumbered value to the build contract |
| Owner-builder | Yes | Amount depends on when the foundations were laid |
| Substantially renovated by the seller | Sometimes | Completed by the seller in limited circumstances only |
| Established home | No | The Revenue Office states there are no grants for established homes |
| Cosmetically renovated home | No | A kitchen remodel or new carpet is not a substantial renovation |
The renovation distinction matters more than buyers expect. Most of the building must have been removed or replaced for a renovation to count as substantial, so a beautifully refreshed older home fails the test completely.
Why The Rule Bites Here
Heritage Park is not a suburb where the grant rules bend easily, and that is worth understanding before you start searching rather than after.
The stock is almost entirely established
Around 99.5 per cent of Heritage Park dwellings are separate houses with no apartments at all, and dwelling approvals across the last five years totaled 92, so the grant's new-stock requirement leaves almost the entire local market outside the rules.
The median income versus the eligible stock
Households here earn a median near $2,090 a week, ranking high within the state, yet eligible new stock within 23.9 kilometres of Brisbane CBD is thin, so buyers with strong serviceability find supply rather than borrowing power is the constraint.
The gap between eligible and desirable
A new townhouse in a Logan development and an established four-bedroom house in Heritage Park sit at similar prices, yet only one carries the grant, so buyers weigh $30,000 toward an unbuilt home against a property they can inspect immediately.
What it means for your search
If the grant is central to your plan, search new estates and off-the-plan releases in surrounding Logan suburbs rather than established Heritage Park streets, checking total value including land against the cap before becoming attached to any particular display home.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
Here is where buyers frequently leave money unclaimed, because the grant and the transfer duty concession are separate schemes with separate rules, and the Queensland Revenue Office administers both from its first home duty concession page:
Two payments, one purchase
No duty at all up to $700,000
A reduced band above that
Established homes still qualify for duty relief
Occupancy rules differ
Citizenship tightened from August 2026
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
You can lodge through an approved agent, usually your bank or lender, or directly with the Revenue Office, and the two routes differ sharply on timing.
- 1
Through an approved agent
Lodging through a bank or lender is the fastest route, and payment generally lands at settlement for purchases, if you are arranging finance through a broker, ask whether your chosen lender is an approved agent, because switching mid-transaction costs weeks.
- 2
Directly with the Revenue Office
Applying directly means the grant is not paid until the home is complete and all supporting documents are supplied, which for a construction timeline can mean many months of waiting after you have met your deposit and progress payment obligations.
- 3
The deadline you cannot miss
You must apply within one year of taking possession and title registration when buying, or within one year of completion when building, and missing it forfeits the grant, because no late lodgement pathway is described on the Revenue Office pages.
- 4
What to have ready
Expect evidence of identity, citizenship status and contract details, plus later the certificate of occupancy or final inspection certificate for a build, and keep land valuation details handy because the value test combines the build contract with the land's unencumbered value.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
The knock-back list on the Revenue Office pages is long, and almost every entry traces to an assumption made before the contract was signed:
- Assuming an established home qualifies It never does, at any price, and this is the most common disappointment of the lot.
- Crossing the cap by a little A contract value at or over $750,000 means the grant is refused outright, not scaled back, and a house-and-land package structured as separate land and building contracts still counts the land in the value test.
- Land bought years earlier Land purchased cheaply that has since risen in value can push a build over the cap even though the build contract itself looks affordable.
- An incomplete building contract A non-comprehensive contract, one that excludes benchtops or electrical work, fails the contract-to-build test, so read the inclusions schedule before signing.
- Occupancy slips Moving in later than one year after completion, or leaving before six continuous months, forfeits the grant outside exceptional circumstances.
- Prior ownership anywhere Previous residential property ownership by you or your spouse anywhere in Australia, not just Queensland, disqualifies the application.
- Wrong applicant structure Applying as a company or trust fails on eligibility, so get the ownership structure right before the contract, not after.
If a family guarantee is part of your deposit plan, note that guarantor arrangements sit entirely outside these rules, and any guarantor should get independent legal and financial advice before signing.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Heritage Park serves Heritage Park and the surrounding Logan suburbs, including Browns Plains, Berrinba, Crestmead, Park Ridge and Regents Park, where much of the eligible new-build stock within reach of Heritage Park actually sits.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the QLD First Home Owner Grant worth?
Contracts signed on or after 20 November 2023 attract $30,000. Contracts signed before that date attract $15,000, a figure that still circulates on older websites.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. The Queensland Revenue Office is explicit that there are no home owner grants for established homes. Established purchases can still attract the separate first home duty concession.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
The total value of the home and land, including contract variations, must be less than $750,000. At $750,000 or above the grant is refused outright, not reduced.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Yes. You must move in within one year of completion and live there continuously for six months. The Commissioner's discretion applies only in exceptional circumstances.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are separate schemes. The grant applies only to new homes, while the duty concession also covers established homes and removes duty entirely up to $700,000.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
Applying through an approved agent such as a bank or lender is the fastest route. Applying directly to the Revenue Office means waiting until the home is complete.
Mortgage broker for Heritage Park and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
Grant rules, duty bands and lender policy all interact, and an expensive mistake is discovering one after signing a contract. Call (07) 3523 7115 to talk through your first home plan with a local broker, with a published fee structure, a documented process and a panel of lenders behind every conversation.