VIC first home buyers
VIC First Home Owner Grant
The First Home Owner Grant in Victoria pays $10,000 to eligible first home buyers who buy or build a new home valued at up to $750,000 and live in it as their principal place of residence. It is administered by the State Revenue Office.
This page sets out who qualifies, which properties the grant covers, how it interacts with first home buyer duty relief, and what the rules mean specifically for buyers searching in Barwon Heads and the surrounding Bellarine. Your Mortgage Broker Barwon Heads(/) arranges home lending across the area and has written this as a plain-English summary, with every figure linked to the SRO source.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The figure that surprises most first home buyers is how modest the headline payment is: a flat $10,000, one-off, for every eligible new home in Victoria. There is no regional loading anymore. Many buyers still arrive with the old regional scheme in mind, having heard that building outside Melbourne earned a larger payment, but that scheme is closed and does not apply to any current contract. The SRO's eligibility page confirms the single statewide amount. Ten thousand dollars matters, and it stacks with duty relief that can be worth far more, but nobody should budget around the grant alone. Treat it as a bonus on top of a purchase that has to stand up financially without it, and treat the duty exemptions in section six as the larger prize.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility is decided by the SRO against a fixed list of criteria, and every one of them must be met: per the SRO's understanding the FHOG page:
Age and applicants
Citizenship or residency
Property type
Value cap
No prior ownership
Occupancy commitment
Which Properties It Covers
The quickest way to check a property type is against the table below, drawn from the SRO's eligibility rules:
| Property | Grant eligible? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| New house, townhouse, apartment or unit, never sold or occupied | Yes | Must not have been leased or used for short-stay accommodation |
| Substantially renovated home | Yes | The renovation must have created a new, as-new residence |
| Home built to replace a demolished one | Yes | Treats the rebuild as a new home |
| Off-the-plan purchase | Yes | The $750,000 cap applies to the contract price |
| Established (previously occupied) home | No | No grant at any price, though duty relief may still apply |
Why The Rule Bites Here
This is the part a national page will not tell you: the grant only helps if eligible stock exists where you want to live, and in Barwon Heads the eligible stock is narrow.
The cap rules out most established stock
Barwon Heads is an established, tightly held coastal suburb. The housing stock is overwhelmingly detached houses, at 91.2 per cent of dwellings, and only 2.8 per cent are flats or apartments, according to the suburb facts for the area. Most resales here sit well above the $750,000 cap, so an established purchase in Barwon Heads will almost never attract the grant, regardless of the buyer's eligibility.
New stock is where the grant actually applies
The grant attaches to new homes, and new homes here are townhouses and infill builds rather than high-rise. The suburb has recorded 2,141 dwelling approvals over the last five years, placing its building activity around the 97th percentile in Victoria. New units and townhouses coming through in and around town are the realistic grant-eligible candidates.
The gap between eligible and desirable
An eligible new townhouse and a desirable established family home on a quiet street are two different purchases, and the price gap between them is real. Buyers should decide early whether the grant is worth redirecting their search toward new stock in Barwon Heads, Wallington or Connewarre, where land and newer builds sit closer to the cap.
What this means for your search
Practically, a grant-motivated search here means watching new developments, off-the-plan releases and house-and-land packages rather than the established market. Our first home buyer loans page covers how lending works alongside the grant, and a construction loan is the route if you are building rather than buying off the plan. Budget against the full price with no grant, and treat the $10,000 as upside.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The grant is the smaller of the two benefits available, and the interaction between the schemes is where genuine money sits. Duty relief is a separate scheme run by the SRO, with its own thresholds:
Full duty exemption
Sliding concession
Both at once
Established homes too
Own occupancy rules
Once only
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
The application itself is not complicated, but the deadline is absolute and the paperwork is easier to assemble while the purchase is running. The SRO's FHOG page covers the mechanics.
- 1
Choose your lodgement route
Most buyers lodge through an approved agent, which in practice is the lender funding the purchase, because the application travels with the home loan. The alternative is applying directly with the SRO, which suits buyers whose transaction is already settled or who are not using a lender.
- 2
Assemble the eligibility evidence
Expect to evidence identity, citizenship or residency, the contract of sale, and details of every applicant and their partners. If any applicant or partner has previously owned property, the SRO will test that against the prior-ownership rules, so be upfront about it before lodging.
- 3
Mind the deadline
You have 12 months from settlement, or from completion of construction, to lodge the application. Missing that window forfeits the payment entirely, and there is no discretion to revive a late claim, so diary the date the day you settle.
- 4
Wait for the transaction to complete
The SRO does not publish fixed payment dates, and no page should promise you one. Payment is made once the eligible transaction completes, so for a construction build that means the money arrives after completion rather than during the build, and you should not plan your cash flow around it.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
These are the failure modes the SRO sees, and every one of them is avoidable with a careful contract review before you sign:
- Buying established by mistake The most common knock-back of all: buyers assume an older home qualifies. It does not, at any price point, and no amount of eligibility elsewhere rescues the application.
- A "new" home that has been lived in A dwelling previously leased out or used as short-term accommodation fails the never-occupied test, even if it has never been sold.
- Over the cap A contract price above $750,000 fails outright, and for off-the-plan purchases it is the contract price that counts.
- Broken occupancy Not living there for the full 12 continuous months, or moving in later than 12 months after settlement or completion, triggers repayment.
- Prior ownership or a prior grant If you or your partner has owned and occupied a home for six or more continuous months since mid-2000, or either of you has claimed a grant before, you are out.
- Wrong applicant structure Applying as a company or a trust fails the natural-persons requirement, so restructure before you sign, not after.
- Late lodgement Applications lodged more than 12 months after settlement or completion are simply refused.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Barwon Heads writes this page for Barwon Heads buyers, but the same grant rules apply across the Bellarine, and we arrange home lending throughout the district. Nearby we regularly work with buyers in Wallington and Connewarre, where new releases and larger blocks often sit closer to the $750,000 cap than established Barwon Heads stock does. You can read more about who you are dealing with on our About page.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the VIC First Home Owner Grant worth?
The grant pays $10,000 as a one-off payment for an eligible new home anywhere in Victoria. The old separate regional grant is a closed scheme, so the same statewide figure applies to Barwon Heads.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. The grant only applies to a new home that has never been sold or occupied, a substantially renovated home, or an off-the-plan purchase. Established homes qualify for no grant at any price.
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 cap applies to the contract price rather than the final value.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Yes. At least one applicant must move in as their principal place of residence within 12 months of settlement or completion, and stay for at least 12 continuous months.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are separate schemes. The grant pays $10,000 on eligible new homes. Duty relief is a separate first home buyer exemption or concession with its own $600,000 and $750,000 thresholds.
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 you must apply within 12 months of settlement or completion of the build.
Mortgage broker for Barwon Heads and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing a grant-eligible new build against an established purchase, a short conversation will map the numbers properly, including how the duty thresholds change what you can afford. Call Your Mortgage Broker Barwon Heads on (03) 9122 8522. As a credit assistance business operating under an Australian Credit Licence, we will tell you plainly where the grant applies and where it does not.