NSW first home buyers
NSW First Home Owner Grant
The NSW First Home Owner Grant is a one-off payment from the New South Wales Government to eligible first home buyers who purchase a new home. It is administered by Revenue NSW and applies to new builds, off-the-plan purchases and substantially renovated homes, not established dwellings.
Your Mortgage Broker Killara, a mortgage broking business based in Killara, helps first home buyers work out what they can claim before they sign anything. This page covers the current grant amount, who qualifies, the property caps, how the grant stacks with stamp duty relief, and where the rules bite around Ku-ring-gai.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The surprise for many buyers is how modest the headline figure is, and how stale much of the information online has become. Older articles and some third-party sites still quote a $30,000 amount that has not applied for years and cannot be verified against any current government source. The confirmed current figure is $10,000, one-off, paid by Revenue NSW to eligible applicants buying a new home, an off-the-plan property, or a substantially renovated dwelling that has never been lived in or sold since the renovation. The 2026-27 NSW Budget, handed down 23 June 2026, made no changes to the grant amount or the value caps, so the figures below are current. Ten thousand dollars is real money against a deposit, but it is not a deposit by itself, and the eligibility rules around it decide far more of your purchase than the amount does. The caps in particular are cliffs rather than slopes, which is why the rest of this page spends so much time on what qualifies and what quietly does not.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility is a checklist, and every item on it must be satisfied by every applicant, not just one of you. The core requirements, all published by Revenue NSW, are:
Natural persons only
Citizenship or residency
No prior ownership
A genuine first purchase
The new-home test
Under the value cap
The occupancy rule
The partner rule catches more people than any other item. A brief or interstate ownership held years ago, even jointly with a family member, can disqualify an application, so map both applicants' histories before you fall in love with a property.
Which Properties It Covers
The quick answer is that the grant follows new dwellings, and the cap depends on how you buy. The table below sets out the position, with the figures as published by Revenue NSW:
| Property or contract type | Grant eligible? | Value cap |
|---|---|---|
| New home, home and land under one contract | Yes | $600,000 |
| Vacant land plus separate building contract | Yes, combined | $750,000 combined |
| Off-the-plan new home | Yes | $600,000 |
| Substantially renovated, never lived in or sold since renovation | Yes | $600,000 |
| Established home, previously lived in or sold | No, at any price | Not applicable |
Note that the cap is a cliff, not a slope. A contract at $601,000 does not receive a reduced grant, it receives no grant at all, which makes the number on the front page of the contract the single most important figure in the whole application.
Why The Rule Bites Here
This is where a statewide summary stops being useful, because the grant's new-home test collides directly with the kind of housing Killara actually has. The specifics around postcode 2071:
The Local Median Sits Far Above The Cap
Killara is a leafy Upper North Shore garden suburb dominated by Federation and Californian Bungalow homes on large blocks, with multiple heritage conservation areas. A median household mortgage repayment of about $3,300 a month reflects a market where the typical dwelling is worth well beyond the grant's $600,000 cap. A first buyer hoping to claim the grant on a house here will find almost nothing qualifies.
New Stock Concentrates Near The Station
The dwellings that do qualify are not spread evenly. Roughly 42.6 per cent of local dwellings are flats or apartments, and the newer apartment blocks cluster near the railway line and the Pacific Highway. That is where a grant-eligible purchase in Killara is realistically found, in a unit under the cap rather than a house on one of the garden streets.
The Eligible And The Desirable Rarely Overlap
The streets people move to Killara for, Springdale Road, Stanhope Road, Werona Avenue and their neighbours, carry the heritage housing that the grant excludes by definition. A grant-chasing buyer is effectively choosing between a new apartment near the station and an older house elsewhere in Ku-ring-gai, and the duty relief thresholds widen that choice in a way the next section explains.
The Search Should Follow The Rules
With 575 dwelling approvals across the last five years, new supply does arrive here, but it lands as apartments rather than the detached houses that make up 54.7 per cent of the suburb's stock. The practical consequence is simple: a first buyer set on the grant should search new developments around the transport spine, while a buyer set on a house should check the duty relief instead, because the grant will not apply.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The curiosity most buyers arrive with is whether the grant and the stamp duty concession can be combined, and the answer is yes, on the right purchase. The two schemes are separate: the grant is for new homes only, while the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme covers both new and established homes. The duty position, with thresholds effective from 1 July 2023 and unchanged in the 2026-27 Budget:
Full transfer duty exemption on a home
A concessional sliding scale
Full exemption on vacant land
Both schemes on one purchase
Duty relief without the grant
An established home above the grant's reach but under the duty threshold gets no grant, only the concession, and on a typical purchase the duty saving can dwarf the grant itself. That asymmetry matters more here than in cheaper postcodes, because the duty scheme's ceiling reaches into territory the grant's cap never touches. A buyer who writes off all government help because the local median clears the grant's cap may be walking past an exemption worth many multiples of it. The right question is not "do I qualify for the grant" but "which of the two schemes does this specific property trigger", and the answer changes with every contract price.
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
The good news is that the application itself is not complicated once the property passes the tests, and the money often arrives sooner than buyers expect. The stages:
- 1
Where The Application Goes
Applications are lodged either through an approved bank or lender acting as agent for Revenue NSW, or directly to Revenue NSW where no approved agent is involved. Most buyers lodge through their lender at the same time as the loan, which keeps the paperwork in one channel.
- 2
Payment On A Completed Home
Where the home is already built and ready to occupy, the grant is generally paid at settlement. That timing suits a buyer using the grant to top up the deposit, because the funds land when the purchase completes rather than months later.
- 3
Payment On A Build
Under a construction contract, the grant is typically paid once the first progress payment is made to the builder. That means the money can arrive early in the build, which helps with early costs, but it also means the occupancy clock and the build timeline both need managing.
- 4
Payment On Off-The-Plan
Off-the-plan buyers receive the grant at settlement, which can sit well beyond the contract date depending on when the developer completes. Anyone counting the grant toward their deposit on an off-the-plan purchase needs to plan for that gap, because the contract date and the payment date can be years apart.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
Most refusals are avoidable, and they cluster around a handful of predictable mistakes. The consequences are not mild: a knocked-back application means no $10,000 and, worse, a purchase already signed under assumptions that no longer hold. The common failures:
- Wrong property type Assuming any first home purchase qualifies, rather than checking the new-home test first. An established Federation house in Killara fails this test at any price.
- Missing the occupancy window Not moving in within 12 months, or moving out before completing 12 months of continuous residence, breaches the rule for contracts from 1 July 2023.
- Prior ownership somewhere in the picture A partner's brief or interstate ownership, even one held jointly with a family member years ago, disqualifies the application.
- Applying as a company or trust The grant goes to natural persons only, and a structure chosen for tax or asset protection reasons can quietly void it.
- Marginally exceeding the cap A contract at $601,000 against the $600,000 cap receives no reduced grant, it receives nothing, so price negotiations near the cap carry grant consequences.
- Incomplete documents at lodgement Missing identity, contract or citizenship evidence stalls the application, and a stalled application can hold up a settlement it was supposed to support.
The pattern across all six is the same: every one of them is checkable before you sign, and none of them is fixable afterwards at the price you wanted. A short conversation that maps your history and the contract structure against the rules costs nothing and happens before exchange, which is the only point where the answer can still change your decision. That is where a broker who works the numbers with you, rather than just the loan, earns their place in the process.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Based in Killara, we work with first home buyers across the neighbouring Ku-ring-gai and northern Sydney districts, including Gordon, East Killara, East Lindfield, Lindfield, Macquarie Park and West Pymble. You can read more about how we work on the About page, or start with our First Home Buyer Loans service page.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the NSW First Home Owner Grant worth?
The grant is a one-off $10,000 payment from Revenue NSW for eligible first home buyers purchasing a new home. The 2026-27 NSW Budget made no changes to the amount or the value caps.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. A home that has been previously lived in or sold is not eligible for the grant at any price. The grant applies to new homes, off-the-plan purchases and substantially renovated homes never occupied since renovation.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
The cap is $600,000 when the home and land are under one contract, or $750,000 combined when you buy vacant land and sign a separate building contract. Going one dollar over disqualifies the whole application.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Yes. Under 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 is $10,000 for new homes only, while the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme covers new and established homes and exempts transfer duty up to $800,000.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
For a completed home it is generally paid at settlement, and for a build it is typically paid once the first progress payment goes to the builder. Off-the-plan buyers wait until the development settles.
Mortgage broker for Killara and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
Before you bid at auction or sign a contract, check which schemes your purchase actually triggers. Call (02) 9072 0649 for a free, no-obligation strategy call. No cost for most borrowers, commission disclosed upfront, a named, licensed broker on every file.