VIC first home buyers
VIC First Home Owner Grant
The VIC First Home Owner Grant is a one-off $10,000 payment from the Victorian Government to eligible first home buyers who buy or build a new home valued at up to $750,000. Established homes are not eligible.
This page sets out who qualifies, which properties the grant covers, how it combines with first home buyer duty relief, and what all of that means specifically for buyers searching in Mount Evelyn and the surrounding Yarra Ranges. Your Mortgage Broker Mount Evelyn(/) is a local mortgage brokerage, and we work with first home buyers across this corridor every week.
The Grant Is Smaller Than Most Buyers Assume
Most buyers arrive expecting the grant to carry a house deposit, and the surprising fact is that it does much less work than the headlines suggest. The scheme pays $10,000 as a single payment, statewide, with no separate regional amount any more: the old regional grant is a closed scheme and does not apply to current contracts, a point the SRO makes plainly. Against a Mount Evelyn purchase, where established family homes trade well above the cap, $10,000 is a helpful contribution rather than a deposit solution. The bigger money sits in the separate duty exemption, which we cover below, and in how the two schemes stack together on a new build. Treat the grant as one part of the package, not the package itself.
Who Qualifies
The eligibility rules are stricter than most buyers expect, and they apply to every applicant on the contract, not just the main borrower. Check each point against your own position before you fall in love with a block of land:
Natural persons only
Citizenship or residency
First ownership test
The occupancy rule
The value cap
The application window
Which Properties It Covers
The grant follows the building, not the buyer's age or suburb, and the property type decides everything. The table below sets out what qualifies and what does not, drawn from the SRO eligibility guidance:
| Property type | Grant eligible? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Newly built house, townhouse, apartment or unit | Yes | Must never have been sold, leased out or used for short-term accommodation |
| Substantially renovated home | Yes | The renovation must have created a new building, per the SRO definition |
| Home built to replace a demolished one | Yes | The replacement home must meet the new-home conditions |
| Off-the-plan purchase | Yes | The cap applies to the contract price, which helps near $750,000 |
| Established home | No | No grant at any price, though duty relief may still apply |
| Company or trust purchase | No | Applicants must be natural persons |
Why The Rule Bites Here
The new-home restriction matters more in Mount Evelyn than buyers realise, because the grant follows new stock and our suburb holds very little of it. The property values also press against the cap. Here is how the rule interacts with this specific patch of the Yarra Ranges.
Established Stock Dominates the Suburb
Mount Evelyn is a suburb of separate houses: the census records 97.8 per cent of dwellings as separate houses and effectively no flats or apartments at all. Those established houses sit well outside the grant's new-home rule, so buyers searching the normal channels here are searching mostly in the wrong category for the grant, whatever their budget allows.
New Supply Is Genuinely Thin
Dwelling approvals tell the supply story: only 82 dwellings were approved across the last five years, placing Mount Evelyn around the 21st percentile for building activity in the state. That trickle of new stock means eligible properties appear occasionally rather than constantly, so grant buyers here cannot count on a steady menu of qualifying homes.
Eligible and Desirable Rarely Overlap
The homes most first buyers want in Mount Evelyn, the established four-bedroom weatherboards on quiet streets, do not qualify for the grant, while the homes that do qualify tend to be infill builds or replacement dwellings with a narrower price and style range. Buyers should hold both realities in view rather than expecting the lists to merge.
What This Means for Your Search
Practically, a grant-focused buyer in this area should search in two lanes at once: new builds and off-the-plan contracts inside the cap, and established homes under $750,000 that earn no grant but may still earn the full duty exemption. Our first home buyer and construction loan pages map both routes in detail, and a knockdown rebuild on an existing Mount Evelyn block can straddle them.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The grant and the first home buyer duty exemption or concession are two separate schemes with separate thresholds, and buyers routinely conflate them at a cost of thousands. The distinction is worth sitting with: the grant is only for new homes, while duty relief covers homes of any age, including vacant land to build on. Run the combinations from the SRO duty page:
New home, dutiable value up to $600,000
New home between $600,001 and $750,000
Established home up to $600,000
Established home between $600,001 and $750,000
Vacant land to build a first home
Once only, and once per transaction
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
The application itself is not difficult, but the sequence matters and the deadlines are hard. Lodgement runs through your lender or the SRO, and the payment arrives once the transaction completes rather than on a fixed calendar date. Here is the practical sequence from the SRO overview.
- 1
Apply Through Your Lender or the SRO
Most buyers lodge through an approved agent, which in practice means their lender processes the grant alongside the home loan application, so the paperwork travels with the finance rather than after it. Direct lodgement with the SRO remains available where that route suits better, such as after a cash purchase or a lender without agency arrangements.
- 2
Mind the 12-Month Deadline
The application must be lodged within 12 months of settlement or of completion of the build, and missed deadlines are a genuine, documented knock-back reason rather than a theoretical one. Set the date at settlement itself, not at some later point when the chaos of moving in has subsided, because the SRO does not extend the window.
- 3
Payment Follows Completion
The SRO does not publish fixed payment dates by purchase type, so describe the position plainly: the grant is paid once the eligible transaction completes. For a land-and-construction deal that means later than buyers expect, because completion happens at the end of the build, not at the land settlement that starts your holding costs. Budget as though the grant arrives last.
- 4
Tell Your Lender Early
Flag the grant at application stage rather than at settlement, because your broker and lender can structure the approval, the deposit and any guarantor arrangement around the full package of grant and duty relief. Our guarantor and low deposit page explains how a family guarantee can bridge the deposit gap while the grant does its smaller work.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
The SRO's own guidance lists the reasons applications fail, and nearly all of them are avoidable with a contract read before signing rather than after. Run this list against any purchase you are considering:
- Buying established and hoping The most common failure: buyers assume the grant applies to any first home. It does not, at any price point.
- A "new" home with history A dwelling that has been leased out or used for short-term accommodation before purchase fails the never-occupied condition, even if it has never been sold.
- Contract price over the cap Above $750,000 the grant is gone entirely, with no taper for near-misses.
- Occupancy broken or late Not living in the home for the full 12 continuous months, or moving in more than 12 months after settlement or completion, puts the grant at risk.
- Prior ownership or a prior grant The first-ownership test covers applicants and their partners, so a partner's previous property counts against the application.
- Wrong applicant structure A company or trust on the title disqualifies the application, whatever the buyers' intentions.
- Lodging too late The 12-month application deadline is fixed, and late applications are refused.
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Mount Evelyn works with first home buyers right across the Yarra Ranges foothills, and the same grant rules shape the search in every one of these suburbs: Lilydale, Wandin North, Silvan, Kalorama and Montrose each have their own mix of established stock and new builds, and we service all of them alongside Mount Evelyn itself.
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 grant for regional Victoria is a closed scheme and does not apply to current contracts.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. The grant covers new homes, substantially renovated homes and off-the-plan purchases only. An established home earns no grant at any price, though it may still qualify for the separate first home buyer duty exemption or concession.
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 completed value, which can make off-the-plan a useful route near the ceiling.
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. Breaching the occupancy rule risks the grant.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are two separate schemes. The grant is a $10,000 payment for new homes, while the first home buyer duty exemption or concession applies to homes of any age with a dutiable value up to $750,000.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
You apply within 12 months of settlement or completion, either through your lender as an approved agent or directly with the SRO. Payment is made once the eligible transaction completes; the SRO does not publish fixed dates.
Mortgage broker for Mount Evelyn and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing a new build against an established purchase and want to know which scheme pays what, call (03) 9122 8521 for a no-obligation conversation. We compare a panel of lenders, we publish our process and timelines, and we will show you the worked numbers for your own situation before you commit to anything.