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 New South Wales 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.
On this page we set out who qualifies, which properties the grant covers, how it combines with stamp duty relief, and what the value caps mean in practice for buyers looking around Killarney Heights and the surrounding northern suburbs. Your Mortgage Broker Killarney Heights(/) maintains this guide and checks the figures against Revenue NSW.
What It Is Worth Right Now
Something many first buyers do not realise until late in the process: the figure still circulating on forums and older articles is wrong. You may have seen $30,000 quoted for the NSW grant. That amount has not applied for years and cannot be verified against any current government source. The confirmed payment today is a one-off $10,000, available once per transaction and once per applicant per lifetime. The 2026-27 NSW Budget, handed down on 23 June 2026, made no changes to the grant amount or to either value cap, so the scheme you read about here is the scheme you would apply to. Ten thousand dollars will not transform a budget, but combined with the duty relief covered further down, it meaningfully changes the cash a first buyer needs at settlement, and it applies to a narrower slice of property than most people expect.
Who Qualifies
The eligibility test is stricter than most buyers assume, and the rules below come from the Revenue NSW grant page. Read them before you fall in love with a property, because several disqualify applications that looked straightforward:
First ownership in Australia
Natural persons only
Citizenship or residency
The new home test
The occupancy commitment
One grant per lifetime
Which Properties It Covers
The property type and the purchase structure determine which value cap applies, so it is worth mapping your situation against the table before you start inspecting:
| Purchase structure | Eligible? | Value cap | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| New home, home and land under one contract | Yes | $600,000 total | Revenue NSW |
| Off-the-plan purchase in a new development | Yes | $600,000 total | Revenue NSW |
| Substantially renovated home, never lived in or sold since | Yes | $600,000 total | Revenue NSW |
| Vacant land plus a separate building contract | Yes | $750,000 combined | Revenue NSW |
| Established home previously lived in or sold | No, at any price | Not applicable | Revenue NSW |
Note the shape of that last row. The established-home exclusion has no price limit attached, so a modest older unit and a multimillion-dollar house are treated identically: neither attracts the grant.
Why The Rule Bites Here
This is where a statewide grant guide stops being useful. The caps interact with local housing stock in ways that change where a Killarney Heights buyer can realistically hunt, and the picture on this plateau is unusually stark.
The stock is overwhelmingly established
This suburb subdivided as a single estate around 1964 and built out fast, which is why the streets carry such uniform 1960s brick and brick-veneer homes. Nearly every dwelling is a separate house, and most have grown to four or more bedrooms through decades of extensions. It is established stock almost entirely, which means the grant's new-home test excludes nearly everything standing here today. A buyer counting on the $10,000 needs to widen the map, not narrow it.
The cap sits well below the local market
The numbers tell the story quietly. A median household mortgage repayment of about $3,500 a month implies property values far beyond the $600,000 single-contract cap, and a median household income sitting at the very top of the state distribution confirms buyers here are not shopping at entry-level prices. The grant is real money, but on this plateau it applies to a thin, specific slice of the market rather than the market generally.
Eligible stock barely gets built here
Around 162 dwellings were approved across this area in the last five years, in a suburb of roughly 1,400 dwellings, and the area sits near the middle of the state for building activity. The housing is low density by design, so large off-the-plan developments of the kind the grant targets simply do not arise here. Eligible new stock is something you travel to, not something you wait for locally.
What this means for the search
The practical conclusion: a buyer committed to the grant should look at knockdown-rebuild projects on local blocks, where the $750,000 combined cap for land plus a building contract can apply, or at new developments in adjoining suburbs. Our construction loans guide covers how progressive drawdown lending works on a build, and the first home buyer page looks at deposit and policy questions alongside the grant.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The grant is only half the support available, and the half people overlook is often the larger one. The First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme is a completely separate program, run by the same office but with its own rules, and its headline figures are bigger:
It covers established homes
A full exemption up to $800,000
A concession from $800,000 to $1,000,000
Vacant land has its own thresholds
Both schemes survived the budget intact
They stack on eligible purchases
The curiosity-gap insight most buyers miss: on this plateau, where established houses dominate, the duty scheme is almost certainly the more valuable of the two supports, and it applies to precisely the properties the grant excludes.
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
The application process runs through the transaction itself, which means the paperwork is lodged as part of the purchase rather than after it. The Revenue NSW grant page sets out the formal requirements, and the sequence looks like this:
- 1
Lodge through the lender
Most applications go through an approved bank or lender acting as Revenue NSW's agent, lodged alongside the home loan application itself. Where no approved agent is involved, the application goes directly to Revenue NSW. Either way, identity documents, the contract and citizenship evidence must all be complete at lodgement, because incomplete files are a leading cause of delay.
- 2
Payment on a completed home
For a home already built and ready to occupy, the grant is generally paid at settlement. It is applied against the transaction at the point funds flow, which means it arrives where it does the most good: reducing the cash you need on the day.
- 3
Payment on off-the-plan
An off-the-plan purchase also pays at settlement, but settlement itself can sit well beyond the contract date depending on the developer's completion timeline. Budget for a long gap between signing and receiving the grant, and do not plan other costs around money that has not arrived.
- 4
Payment during construction
On a construction contract, the grant is typically paid once the first progress payment is made to the builder. That timing matters for your cash flow during a build, because early stages are exactly when funds are tightest. Our renovation lending guide covers the drawdown mechanics in more detail.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
Revenue NSW processes thousands of these applications, and the failure patterns are consistent enough to list in advance. Every one of them is avoidable with a careful read of the contract before you sign:
- Wrong property type Assuming any first purchase qualifies, rather than checking the new-home test against the contract, is the single most common mistake. Established homes fail this test at every price point.
- The occupancy window Not moving in within twelve months of settlement or completion, or moving out before completing twelve months of continuous residence, triggers a clawback of the grant.
- Prior ownership anywhere A previous property interest by an applicant or their partner, anywhere in Australia, even briefly or interstate, ends eligibility. The exceptions are narrow and mostly confined to property held before 2000.
- Applying as a company or trust The grant flows to natural persons only, so a purchase made through a family trust or company structure cannot claim it, however genuine the first-buyer circumstances.
- A contract price marginally over the cap Going even slightly above $600,000 or the combined $750,000 disqualifies the entire application. The grant does not reduce proportionally, it disappears.
- Incomplete documents at lodgement Missing identity papers, an absent contract, or gaps in citizenship evidence delay processing and can sink an otherwise valid claim.
One broader warning worth stating plainly: do not structure a purchase around keeping the price under a cap by shaving the contract figure informally. Revenue NSW assesses the contract price as it stands, and arrangements that misstate it create far bigger problems than a lost grant.
Where we work
Areas We Service
This guide is maintained for buyers across the lower north shore and Northern Beaches, and the same grant arithmetic applies in each of them. From our base we work with first buyers in Forestville, Allambie Heights, Seaforth, Castle Cove, Roseville Chase and East Lindfield, where eligible new stock and duty thresholds behave differently again. Each suburb page carries its own local housing detail, and our About page explains who we are and how the brokerage is licensed and paid. If a guarantor is part of your deposit plan, the guarantor and low deposit guide sets out the obligations honestly, including the independent legal and financial advice any guarantor should obtain before signing.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the NSW First Home Owner Grant worth?
The grant is worth $10,000, paid once per eligible transaction. Revenue NSW confirms the amount, and the 2026-27 NSW Budget made no changes to it or to the value caps.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. Only new homes, off-the-plan purchases and substantially renovated homes that have never been lived in or sold since the renovation qualify. Established homes attract duty relief only.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
$600,000 for a home and land under one contract, or $750,000 combined for vacant land with a separate building contract. Going even slightly over either cap disqualifies the application.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Yes. For contracts from 1 July 2023 you must move in within twelve months of settlement or completion and live there continuously as your main residence for at least twelve months.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are separate schemes. The grant covers new homes only, while the duty exemption extends to established homes up to $800,000. Eligible buyers can receive both on the one purchase.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
It depends on the purchase stage: generally at settlement for completed homes, and after the first progress payment for construction contracts. Lodge through an approved lender or directly with Revenue NSW.
Mortgage broker for Killarney Heights and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing up the grant, the duty thresholds and a purchase in this pocket of Sydney at the same time, that conversation is exactly what a first consultation covers. Call Your Mortgage Broker Killarney Heights on (02) 9072 0649 for a free, no-obligation discussion. No cost for the first call, published fee and commission structure, and a named broker with verified credentials on every file. Prefer to read first? The first home buyer loans page covers the lending side of a first purchase in detail.