I'm Joey Don. Before you think about hiring anyone, check the three government entitlements below — between the grant and the duty relief they are worth more than our fee to most first-home buyers, and they cost nothing to claim. Then decide whether you want help with the buying itself. — Joey Don
Joey Don · Last updated · 2026-08-31
A first-home purchase in Victoria in 2026 comes with three separate government entitlements, and they are worth checking before you engage anybody. The First Home Owner Grant is a $10,000 payment from the State Revenue Office for eligible first home buyers buying or building a new or never-occupied home in Victoria to live in, valued up to $750,000. Separately — and worth more to most Melbourne buyers — the first home buyer duty exemption means no land transfer duty at all on a dutiable value up to $600,000, and reduced duty from $600,001 to $750,000, provided at least one purchaser occupies the home as their principal place of residence for 12 continuous months starting within 12 months of settlement. Third, the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme, formerly the Home Guarantee Scheme, lets eligible first home buyers buy with a minimum 5% deposit and no Lenders Mortgage Insurance; as at 31 August 2026 it has no income caps, unlimited places and no waiting list, and covers houses, townhouses and units whether existing or newly built, subject to property price caps that vary by location. Note that the grant is new-build only while the duty concession and the deposit scheme are not, so most established-home buyers get the second and third and not the first. On top of that, PremiumRea’s first-home-buyer engagement is a flat $12,500 + GST — the same end-to-end service as our standard tier, priced lower because a first-home brief is usually narrower, not because any step is removed.
Every grant amount, threshold and eligibility rule on this page was last verified against the responsible agency on
First-home buyers in Melbourne lose more money to entitlements they never claimed and conditions they did not notice than to anything a buyers agent negotiates. This page sets out the three current government schemes with the actual numbers and the actual conditions, links each one to the agency that administers it, and only then explains what our $12,500 + GST first-home tier does. If the first half saves you money and you never call us, that is a good outcome.
The First Home Owner Grant is $10,000, administered by the State Revenue Office of Victoria. It is restricted to a new home: newly constructed or never occupied, not previously sold or leased or used for short-term accommodation, which includes substantially renovated homes and homes built to replace a demolished one. The property must be valued up to $750,000 and at least one applicant must occupy it as their principal place of residence for at least 12 months, starting within 12 months of settlement or completion of construction. If you are buying an established house, you do not get this one.
The first home buyer duty exemption or concession is separate, is administered by the same office, and is worth more to most Melbourne buyers because it is not restricted to new builds. There is no land transfer duty at all on a dutiable value up to $600,000, and reduced duty from $600,001 to $750,000. The conditions: purchasers must be natural persons rather than companies or trusts, at least 18 years old, and Australian citizens or permanent residents; the purchase must be at market value; and at least one purchaser must live in the home as their principal place of residence for 12 continuous months within 12 months of settlement. For vacant land the residence window runs to 12 months from the occupancy certificate or 36 months from settlement, whichever comes first.
The third is federal. The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme — the scheme formerly known as the Home Guarantee Scheme, and before that as the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme — lets eligible first home buyers purchase with a minimum 5% deposit and without Lenders Mortgage Insurance, with a 2% minimum for eligible single parents. As at 31 August 2026 there are no income caps, places are unlimited and there is no waiting list, and it applies to houses, townhouses and units whether existing or newly built. Property price caps apply and vary by location, so check the current cap for the area you are buying in.
An earlier version of this page said the deposit scheme carried income caps of $125,000 for singles and $200,000 for couples. Those caps were removed from 1 October 2025. We are flagging the correction rather than quietly editing it, because a first-home buyer who read the old version might have concluded they were ineligible when they were not.
The grant and the duty concession are assessed separately and have different tests, which is where most of the confusion sits. A $650,000 established house in Melbourne gets you reduced duty and no grant. A $700,000 new townhouse can get you both. A $780,000 purchase of either kind gets you neither, because both schemes stop at $750,000 — which means a purchase a little over the threshold can cost meaningfully more than one a little under, and that arithmetic is worth doing before you set your maximum rather than after.
The residence condition is the one people lose after settlement rather than before. Both the grant and the duty concession require someone on the title to live in the property as their principal place of residence for 12 continuous months, starting within 12 months of settlement. Buying with the intention of renting it out immediately, or moving interstate in month eight, puts the entitlement at risk. If your plans might change, raise it with your conveyancer before you sign, not after the State Revenue Office writes to you.
Eligibility also turns on prior ownership, and the test is broader than most people assume: you can be excluded by property you or your spouse or partner owned before 1 July 2000, or by having lived in a home either of you owned or part-owned on or after 1 July 2000 for a continuous period of at least six months. Check your own history against the SRO’s eligibility page rather than assuming.
Finally, none of these is advice. Whether the deposit scheme suits you, how much to borrow, and which lender or loan product to use are credit questions — PremiumRea holds no Australian Credit Licence and does not recommend lenders or loan products. Take them to a licensed mortgage broker or the lender directly, and take duty and grant eligibility to your conveyancer or a registered tax agent.
Honestly: the strongest case is not negotiation, it is suburb and property selection under time pressure. A first-home buyer is usually making the biggest decision of their life in a market they have not transacted in before, on weekends, against people who do this professionally. The work that helps most is a written brief, a shortlist built from settled comparable sales rather than asking prices, and a maximum price set before the emotional part starts.
The second thing is due diligence sequencing, which is where the cooling-off rules bite. On a private sale you have three clear business days from the date you sign — not from the date the seller signs — and withdrawing costs $100 or 0.2% of the purchase price, whichever is greater. At auction there is no cooling-off period at all, nor within three clear business days either side of one, so the section 32 review, the planning and overlay check and the building and pest inspection all have to land before the hammer.
We are not going to tell you what you will save. An earlier version of this page quoted an average saving across our first-home engagements; that figure was not reproducible from anything we publish, and under Australian Consumer Law the burden of substantiating it sits on us, so it has been removed rather than re-sourced. What we will say is what we charge, which is a flat $12,500 + GST, and that the free 30-minute call exists partly so we can tell you when the answer is that you do not need us.
The cases where we genuinely do not add much: you already know the suburb and the property type because you grew up there; you have found a specific property and only want auction help, which is the $2,500 + GST bidding-only tier; or the purchase is being driven by something other than price — a school zone, proximity to family — where optimisation is not really the objective.
The same end-to-end process as our standard $15,800 + GST engagement: written brief, suburb shortlist, on-market and off-market sourcing, inspections, due diligence, negotiation or auction bidding, and settlement coordination. It is priced lower because a first-home brief is typically narrower — one or two suburbs, owner-occupier criteria, a tighter price band — not because any step has been taken out.
What is not in the fee, and should not be bundled into anyone’s: the conveyancer, the building and pest inspection (typically $600–$1,200 in our engagement files), land transfer duty payable to the State Revenue Office, any broker or lender fee, and insurance from settlement. If a buyers agent’s quote includes third-party costs inside their own number, ask them to break it out.
Two things we will not do. We do not accept payment from selling agents, developers or builders in respect of properties we show you — ask for that clause in writing from any agency you talk to. And we do not advise on finance or on whether to buy at all as a financial decision; we hold no Australian Financial Services Licence and no Australian Credit Licence.
One: read the Consumer Affairs Victoria due diligence checklist. The seller or their agent must make it available to you at every open for inspection, it is free, and it names the specific issues that impose restrictions or obligations on a buyer — planning controls and zoning, flood and bushfire risk, building permits and heritage, owners corporation obligations, contamination, boundaries, service connections and your contractual rights.
Two: check your own eligibility for the grant, the duty concession and the deposit scheme directly on the agency pages linked below, rather than through a summary on anyone’s website — including this one. Thresholds move, and the version you read matters.
Three: verify any buyers agent you are considering on the free Consumer Affairs Victoria public register of licensed estate agents. Search both the company on the engagement letter and the individual who would actually run your search; the register shows licence status, including suspensions and cancellations, and any tribunal or court orders affecting the licensee.
It is a $10,000 payment from the State Revenue Office of Victoria for eligible first home buyers buying or building a new home in Victoria to live in. It applies only to newly constructed or never-occupied property — not previously sold, occupied, leased or used for short-term accommodation, which includes substantially renovated homes — valued up to $750,000. At least one applicant must occupy it as their principal place of residence for at least 12 months, starting within 12 months of settlement or completion of construction. Buying an established home does not qualify for the grant, though it may still qualify for the duty concession.
Not on a dutiable value up to $600,000, where the first home buyer exemption removes land transfer duty entirely. From $600,001 to $750,000 a reduced amount of duty applies. Unlike the grant, this applies to established homes as well as new ones, which is why it is worth more to most Melbourne first-home buyers. Purchasers must be natural persons aged at least 18 and Australian citizens or permanent residents, the purchase must be at market value, and at least one purchaser must live in the home as their principal place of residence for 12 continuous months within 12 months of settlement. Use the State Revenue Office duty calculator for your actual figure.
No. Income caps were removed from 1 October 2025. The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme — formerly the Home Guarantee Scheme, and before that the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme — has no income caps as at 31 August 2026, unlimited places and no waiting list. Eligible first home buyers can buy with a minimum 5% deposit and no Lenders Mortgage Insurance, with a 2% minimum for eligible single parents, on houses, townhouses or units whether existing or newly built. Property price caps apply and vary by location. An earlier version of this page quoted the old $125,000 / $200,000 caps; that was out of date and has been corrected.
Potentially, but they are assessed separately against different tests. The grant is new-build only and caps at $750,000; the duty exemption or concession applies to established homes too, with no duty up to $600,000 and reduced duty to $750,000. A new townhouse under $750,000 can attract both; an established house under $600,000 attracts the duty exemption but not the grant; a purchase above $750,000 attracts neither. That threshold arithmetic is worth doing before you set your maximum price.
A flat $12,500 + GST, against $15,800 + GST for our standard acquisition tier. It is the same end-to-end process — written brief, suburb shortlist, sourcing, inspections, due diligence, negotiation or auction bidding, settlement coordination — priced lower because a first-home brief is typically narrower, not because a step is removed. Third-party costs sit outside the fee: conveyancer, building and pest inspection ($600–$1,200 in our files), land transfer duty, and any broker or lender fee.
We are not going to give you a number, and you should be careful with anyone who does. An earlier version of this page quoted an average saving across our first-home engagements; it was not reproducible from any data we publish, so it has been removed. Under Australian Consumer Law a business must be able to prove a claim it advertises, and we could not prove that one. What we can tell you is what we charge, what the process covers, and that the strategy call is free and is where we tell you if we do not think we add net value.
Yes. The auction-bidding-only tier is $2,500 + GST: we attend, run the bidding strategy and hold to the written maximum you set before the day. It does not include the research and due diligence that sit in front of that maximum. That matters at auction more than anywhere else, because there is no cooling-off period at a public auction or within three clear business days either side of one — so if you want the property and the price checked before auction day, the full first-home tier is the right fit.
Three clear business days, running from the date you sign the contract rather than the date the seller signs it. If you withdraw within it you get a refund of money paid less $100 or 0.2% of the purchase price, whichever is greater. It does not apply if you bought at a public auction or within three clear business days before or after one, if the property is mainly industrial or commercial, if it is farming land over 20 hectares, or where the buyer is an estate agent or a body corporate.
Three. Read the Consumer Affairs Victoria due diligence checklist, which the seller or agent must give you access to at every open for inspection. Check your own eligibility for the grant, the duty concession and the 5% deposit scheme directly on the agency pages rather than through anyone’s website summary. And verify any buyers agent on the free Consumer Affairs Victoria public register — search both the company on the engagement letter and the individual who would run your search.
No. PremiumRea holds no Australian Credit Licence and no Australian Financial Services Licence. We do not assess borrowing capacity, recommend lenders or loan products, or advise on whether a government deposit scheme suits your circumstances. Those go to a licensed mortgage broker or the lender directly; grant and duty eligibility goes to your conveyancer or a registered tax agent. What we do is act for you on the property side once those decisions are yours to act on.
Every government scheme, threshold and eligibility rule on this page traces to the responsible agency’s own page below, each checked on 31 August 2026. Grant amounts, price caps and eligibility rules change at budget time and mid-year — confirm your own position against these links or with the agency before you rely on it, because the consequence of getting one wrong is a purchase decision, not a typo.
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