NSW first home buyers
NSW First Home Owner Grant
The NSW First Home Owner Grant is a one-off payment of $10,000 from the NSW Government to eligible first home buyers who buy or build a new home, an off-the-plan home or a substantially renovated home that has never been lived in.
The rules interact with stamp duty relief, local property prices and lender requirements all at once, which is where most buyers come unstuck. Your Mortgage Broker Hunters Hill(/), a mortgage broking service based in Hunters Hill, covers what the grant pays, who qualifies, which properties count, and how the rules play out on this peninsula.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The grant pays exactly $10,000, once, per eligible transaction. The surprising part is how much confusion surrounds that figure: older articles and third-party websites still quote an amount of $30,000 that has not applied for years and cannot be verified against any current government source. If a page promises you more than ten thousand dollars, close the tab and check Revenue NSW directly.
The 2026-27 NSW Budget, handed down on 23 June 2026, made no changes to the grant amount or the value caps. That stability is useful for planning: you can budget around the current rules without bracing for a mid-year shift. What matters far more than the amount is eligibility, because the grant attaches to the property type and the price cap, not to the buyer's need.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility turns on the buyer, not the bank, and Revenue NSW tests each of these points at application:
Natural persons only
Citizenship or residency
A genuine first purchase
One grant per lifetime
The occupancy commitment
The value cap
Which Properties It Covers
The property test is where most applications succeed or fail, and the caps differ by purchase structure:
| Purchase structure | Eligible? | Value cap |
|---|---|---|
| New home, home and land under one contract | Yes | $600,000 |
| Off-the-plan purchase of a new home | Yes | $600,000 |
| Substantially renovated, never lived in or sold since renovation | Yes | $600,000 |
| Vacant land plus a separate building contract | Yes | $750,000 combined |
| Established home, previously lived in or sold | No, at any price | Not applicable |
Those figures come from the Revenue NSW grant page. Note the sharpest edge in the table: a contract price even marginally over the cap disqualifies the whole application. It does not reduce the grant, it removes it.
Why The Rule Bites Here
The cap and the local market
Hunters Hill is a small, tightly held peninsula of heritage sandstone villas and Victorian cottages, and prices across most of its streets sit well above the grant's $600,000 cap. A first home buyer searching here for an eligible property is searching in almost the wrong suburb by default.
Where eligible stock actually sits
New stock is scarce. Only 81 dwellings were approved across the municipality in the last five years, and the suburb sits in the 25th percentile for building activity within the state. The genuinely eligible properties are scattered infill sites and occasional off-the-plan offerings, not a visible pipeline.
The gap between eligible and desirable
The homes buyers actually want here, period cottages on Joubert Street or Woolwich Road, are established homes, which the grant excludes at any price. The grant rewards new stock, and this suburb's character is precisely that it has very little of it.
What that means for your search
The practical answer for most first buyers is to split the search: chase the grant and duty relief in higher-yield locations, or accept no grant and target the duty concession here, which does apply to established homes. Our first home buyer loans page works through that decision in detail.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The grant is one scheme; the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme is a separate one, run by the same office with different thresholds and different property rules:
A full duty exemption applies to homes up to $800,000
A sliding concession runs from $800,000 to $1,000,000
Vacant land gets its own thresholds
Both schemes can stack on one purchase
The thresholds have been stable since 1 July 2023
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
- 1
Applying through your lender
Most applications are lodged through an approved bank or lender acting as an agent for Revenue NSW, which means the grant application travels alongside your home loan application. We prepare both together so the eligibility evidence matches what the lender verifies, and our guarantor and low deposit page covers how the deposit side works when duty relief changes your cash position.
- 2
Applying directly to Revenue NSW
Where no approved agent is involved, the application goes straight to Revenue NSW with identity documents, the contract and citizenship evidence. Direct lodgement suits cash buyers and some off-the-plan purchases, and it moves at the office's own pace rather than the bank's.
- 3
Built homes and off-the-plan timing
A home already built and ready to occupy is generally paid at settlement. An off-the-plan purchase is also paid at settlement, but that settlement can sit well beyond the contract date depending on developer completion, so budget for the grant arriving later than the paperwork begins.
- 4
Construction contract timing
Where you are building under a construction contract, the grant is typically paid once the first progress payment is made to the builder. That helps with early cash flow during a build, and our construction loans page explains how progress draws work alongside it.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
Revenue NSW publishes the common failure points, and every one of them is avoidable with a careful contract review before you sign:
- Wrong property type Assuming any first home purchase qualifies, rather than checking the new-home test, is the single most common error. An established cottage is not eligible at any price.
- Price just over a cap A contract marginally above $600,000 or $750,000 disqualifies the entire application. It does not reduce the grant, and there is no rounding or discretion.
- Prior ownership anywhere A previous property interest by you or your partner, even briefly, even interstate, ends eligibility, subject only to the narrow pre-2000 exceptions.
- Missing the occupancy window Not moving in within 12 months, or moving out before completing 12 months of continuous residence, triggers repayment of the grant.
- Wrong applicant structure Applying as a company or trust rather than as a natural person fails on its face.
- Incomplete documents at lodgement Missing identity, contract or citizenship evidence delays processing and, if the application lapses against a deadline, can forfeit the payment entirely.
Where we work
Areas We Service
From Hunters Hill we work with first home buyers across the surrounding river suburbs, including Linley Point, Longueville, Woolwich, Drummoyne, Huntleys Point and Huntleys Cove. Grant strategy differs suburb by suburb depending on what stock is actually on the market, and we are happy to talk through where your search realistically fits the rules.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the NSW First Home Owner Grant worth?
The grant is a one-off payment of $10,000 per eligible transaction. Some older articles still quote a larger figure that no longer applies, so treat any number other than $10,000 as outdated.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. The grant only applies to new homes, off-the-plan purchases or substantially renovated homes that have never been lived in or sold since the renovation. Established homes are excluded at any price.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
For a home and land bought under one contract the cap is $600,000. For vacant land with a separate building contract the combined value cap is $750,000. Exceeding either cap disqualifies the application entirely.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Yes. For contracts from 1 July 2023 you must move in within 12 months of settlement or completion and live there continuously as your main residence for at least 12 months.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are separate schemes. The grant applies only to new homes, while the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme covers both new and established homes with duty exemptions and concessions up to set thresholds.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
It depends on the purchase stage. A ready-built home is generally paid at settlement, an off-the-plan purchase at its later settlement, and a construction loan build typically after the first progress payment.
Mortgage broker for Hunters Hill and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing the grant against the duty concession, or working out whether an eligible property even exists in your budget, a short conversation saves weeks of guesswork. Every recommendation comes with the reasoning and the alternatives in writing, and standard residential loans cost you nothing in broker fees. Call Your Mortgage Broker Hunters Hill on (02) 9072 0647 to talk it through with Your Mortgage Broker Hunters Hill, or read more about the service on the About page.