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What you need to know about the First Home Owners Grant

The only thing more fun than trying to decipher pages and pages of property legislation is… well, everything. If you’re a first home buyer in Victoria, the First Home Owners Grant (FHOG) could be a huge boost to your deposit. But working out how it actually works isn’t always easy.

We think you deserve to know what you’re entitled to without having your eyes glaze over. We want to make the FHOG less foggy. Find out how you could make your first home more affordable.

It’s basically free money

The FHOG is a one-off payment, usually of $10,000, that the Government could give you when you buy your first home. In regional Victoria, this amount is $20,000.

Tick Homes’ Chief Operating Officer, Darren Mehl explains, “Your home could be a house, unit, townhouse, apartment, or geodesic dome, but it can’t cost any more than $750,000. It also has to be completely new and can’t have been sold as a residential property before – which is great if you’re open to building and looking to create a space that’s truly your own!”

A lot of people confuse the FHOG with the Stamp Duty concession, which is a totally different thing.

You might be eligible for it

So, are you eligible for the FHOG? That depends if you, and anyone else you’re buying your house with:

  • Have never received the grant before
  • Have never owned or partly owned a home/li>
  • Are eighteen years old or over
  • Are a citizen or permanent resident of Australia (at least one of you)
  • Are going to live in the house for at least a year after buying it
  • Are all humans, and not a company or trust.

It’s worth twice as much outside metropolitan Melbourne

Have you thought about a tree change? As of July 2017, if you build or buy a new home in regional Victoria, your FHOG will be doubled to $20,000. That’s a lot of cash – think of how long it would take you to save an extra ten grand. Living in regional Victoria also has the advantages of cheaper property prices, more space and great road and rail networks.

It doesn’t have to be a hassle

You’ll have to fill out a form to apply for the FHOG. But don’t imagine a blizzard of paperwork. Buying a home is easier than you think. Tick Homes makes that whole process simple without cutting corners.

It lowers the amount of cash you need for a deposit

Can you imagine being handed $10,000 or $20,000 for free? That’s pretty much your ticket to home ownership, right there. So forget about saving up big bucks – with the FHOG, you’re on your way.
Darren puts this into perspective for us. He walks us through an example:

  • Consider a house-and-land package for $400,000.
  • For a home loan, you need a 5% deposit, which is $20,000.
  • If the government gives you $10,000, you’re only $10,000 out of pocket.
  • If you’re purchasing a home with a partner, this means you only need to save $5,000 each!

Darren continues, “You can both easily achieve this by skipping one coffee a day, one takeout a week, one brunch on a weekend and one cinema ticket per month. The sacrifice is small, yet the return in the future is huge.”

When you think about it like that, home ownership isn’t too difficult, is it?

At Tick Homes, we’re all about explaining things in a language you can understand. So forget the fluff – we’re here to keep things real. If you have any question about the FHOG – or any other support you might not know you’re eligible for – give us a call today.


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