The 1st home owners grant, also known as FHOG was introduced in July, 2000 by the Australian government to promote home ownership. And it became a huge success. It is a nationwide scheme supported by states in which a first time home owner could be entitled to $7000 if he satisfies the eligibility criteria.

This scheme has undergone many changes over the past 2 years. From Oct 2008 to Sept 2009, the 1st home owners grant was doubled and the first time buyers were now eligible for a $14000 grant and $21000 for new properties. And from Oct 2009 to December 2009, the grant was reduced to $ 10,500 and from January 2010, it is back to $7000. But the question that has become pertinent these days is, what happens when the FHOG scheme ends in June 2010?

As per experts and the administration, the grant is here to stay and benefit the first time home buyers but at the older rate of $7000. The first home owners grant will be the same for pre-occupied and newly constructed properties.   Since 1 January, 2010, there is an additional cap that has been put on this scheme by states. Every state has its own limit but on an average, the house purchase of less than $750,000 is only eligible for this grant. This limit is little relaxed for northern region.

Apart from this grant, most of the states have their own special bonus schemes to benefit first time buyers. There are special concessions offered on stamp duty and other first time taxes. You can avail both the bonus schemes and concessions if you satisfy the criteria. The stamp duty concessions vary from state to state. Australia is also seeing a surge of 1st home owners grant buyers that are old. About 55% of the first time buyers are more than age of 30. That’s why many states have special schemes for the elderly as well.

Australian property market has got a major boost due to the support and grants provided by the government. And 1st time home buyers are certainly the happiest of the lot.

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Tags: 1st home owners grant, FHOG, first home owners grant

This entry was posted on Friday, September 24th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under property investment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.