The 25k HomeBuilder Grant explained

The $25k HomeBuilder grant is part of the government's COVID-19 stimulus package. It will provide eligible owner-occupiers (including first home buyers) with a grant of $25,000 to build a new home or substantially renovate their existing home. Quick clarification: During the podcast I got my words muddled and said 'sustainably' renovate rather than 'substantially' renovate, the correct word in this context is definitely 'substantially'.

In this episode we go through:

What the HomeBuilder Grant is

Who it's for and who it's not for

How and where to apply for it

Where to find details on the grant for your state or territory

Whether the grant be used with other grants, schemes and initiatives

Whether the grant can be used towards your deposit

Go to the episode web page for details of where to apply for the HomeBuilder Grant.

Follow the Dream Home Movement

Facebook

Instagram

Follow Carl and Jo Violeta

Facebook

Instagram

Web

Guest bio

Jo Violeta is the host of the Dream Home Movement podcast and runs the awards winning mortgage brokerage Violeta Finance with her husband Carl. Think of Jo as your property finance translator. She explains complex finance concepts in a way that's easy to understand and accessible, so you can be feel confident and empowered.

Here's a list of the relevant state and territory bodies and their preferred contact details:

Australian Capital Territory

ACT Revenue Office

https://www.revenue.act.gov.au/

New South Wales

New South Wales Revenue Office

[email protected]

1300 130 624.

Northern Territory

Northern Territory’s Revenue Office

https://treasury.nt.gov.au/dtf/territory-revenue-office

Queensland

Queensland Office of State Revenue (OSR)

https://www.treasury.qld.gov.au/budget-and-financial-management/revenue-and-taxation/

[email protected]

1300 300 734.

South Australia

South Australian Revenue Office

https://www.revenuesa.sa.gov.au/

Tasmania

State Revenue Office of Tasmania

https://www.sro.tas.gov.au/

Victoria

State Revenue Office Victoria

https://www.sro.vic.gov.au/

Western Australia

Western Australia Revenue Office

https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-finance

Transcript

Please note: This is an automated transcript, so it won't be perfect.

00:00:00 - 00:00:05

have you heard of the $25,000 homebuilder Grant? Well, if you have, you've

00:00:05 - 00:00:09

probably got questions about it. And if you've got questions about it promising

00:00:09 - 00:00:16

, you, you are not alone. Carl and I have received so many questions about the

00:00:16 - 00:00:20

homebuilder Grant recently. So I thought, Hey, let's do an episode about it.

00:00:20 - 00:00:28

I'm going to explain what it is, who it's for, who It's not for how to apply for it

00:00:28 - 00:00:32

and also answer some of the commonly asked questions about the grant. Now,

00:00:32 - 00:00:39

if we haven't met before Hello, I'm Joe Via letter. I own a an award winning

00:00:39 - 00:00:43

mortgage brokerage with my husband, Carl. We help families and small

00:00:43 - 00:00:49

businesses achieved their finance and property dreams by helping them secure

00:00:49 - 00:00:53

a fair deal on their home loans. Their property investment loans, their

00:00:53 - 00:00:58

commercial property finance and also save money on their mortgage

00:00:58 - 00:01:03

repayments through refinancing and access funds for their home renovations.

00:01:03 - 00:01:09

You confined us all over the Internet at Violet of finance. It's just got one t in it

00:01:09 - 00:01:13

, and we love to hang out on Facebook and Instagram. So please do come

00:01:13 - 00:01:20

along and say hi to us. They're all right Let's get stuck into the $25,000

00:01:20 - 00:01:25

homebuilder Grant. Welcome to the Dream Home Movement. This's your

00:01:25 - 00:01:31

weekly dose of home and property inspiration. Bring you clever tips and

00:01:31 - 00:01:37

advice from the very best experts and really like Renno storeys with your host.

00:01:37 - 00:01:46

Joe Violeta Thie $25,000 Homebuilder Grant is a $688 million scheme that's

00:01:46 - 00:01:52

part of the Australian government's covert 19 stimulus package. Now I know

00:01:52 - 00:01:56

that I have lots of listeners all over Australia, but I also have plenty off

00:01:56 - 00:02:01

international listeners for the dream home movement as well. And so I'm sorry

00:02:01 - 00:02:08

to my international listeners, but this is a new Australian government grant.

00:02:08 - 00:02:12

But you're very welcome to continue listening to the episode. And also we've

00:02:12 - 00:02:20

got plenty off really valuable, really fun episodes coming up that applied Tio.

00:02:20 - 00:02:26

You will apply to you no matter where you live, so I hope you will tune in to

00:02:26 - 00:02:31

those. Okay, So back to the home builder Grant. What is it? Well, it's

00:02:31 - 00:02:41

designed to provide a $25,000 grant to build a new home or sustainably

00:02:41 - 00:02:47

renovate your existing home. There are no caps on the number of grants

00:02:47 - 00:02:54

available. So in Australia, we've got the first home loan deposit scheme, for

00:02:54 - 00:02:59

example, which is the first home buyers. And there's a cap on that, which is

00:02:59 - 00:03:05

there's only 10,000 places available per financial year. There's no cap on the

00:03:05 - 00:03:12

number of grants For the homebuilder grant, however, there is a time limit,

00:03:12 - 00:03:20

and there's some flexibility built into the time limit as faras the timeliness

00:03:20 - 00:03:26

between contracts being signed that has just been built into the scheme recently

00:03:26 - 00:03:31

since it was first introduced. S O. If you're going to look at applying for the

00:03:31 - 00:03:36

scheme, you'll need Teo. Contact your relevant state authority and I'll go

00:03:36 - 00:03:39

through who you're relevant. State authorities are state or territory. Authorities

00:03:39 - 00:03:46

are later on in the episode, but basically without getting into the final finer

00:03:46 - 00:03:51

detail, the time limit is that the contract for the build or renovation must be

00:03:51 - 00:03:59

signed between the Fourth of June 2020 and the 31st of December 2020. So

00:03:59 - 00:04:04

this if you're listening to this episode in real time, it's being published on

00:04:04 - 00:04:11

Thursday morning, August 27th, 2020. So you've still got time, Tio, get

00:04:11 - 00:04:18

organiz DH and This is the bit where there's been a few little tweaks. So

00:04:18 - 00:04:22

originally they were saying that construction must commence within three

00:04:22 - 00:04:27

months off the contract date. I think there might be a bit of discretion in there,

00:04:27 - 00:04:33

a bit of flexibility. So again, you need to cheque with your relevant state or

00:04:33 - 00:04:37

territory authority. And I'll tell you what those are later on in the episode of

00:04:37 - 00:04:45

Also Got All those details in this show notes as well. So who is eligible for the

00:04:45 - 00:04:52

$25,000 homebuilder Grant? Well, first of all, it's for owner occupiers. So

00:04:52 - 00:04:57

you need Teo, the property that you're renovating or you're building you need

00:04:57 - 00:05:04

It needs to be for you to live in. Yeah, okay. On DH there. It's also available

00:05:04 - 00:05:09

to first home buyers, which is great, but also, you don't have to be a first

00:05:09 - 00:05:15

Homebuyer to access the grant s o. A lot of thie grants and schemes that are

00:05:15 - 00:05:21

available around property in Australia are really targeted to first home buyers.

00:05:21 - 00:05:25

But this has opened up Teo. Everyone, regardless of whether your first home

00:05:25 - 00:05:31

by our or you currently own a property, we have owned a property in the past.

00:05:31 - 00:05:37

Okay, so you also need to be now this is going to sound a little bit funny. You

00:05:37 - 00:05:44

need to be a natural person, so that doesn't mean you only I don't know. Eat

00:05:44 - 00:05:52

organic food and don't colour your hair. What it means is that you can't be a

00:05:52 - 00:06:01

company or a trust, so the you need to apply as a person and you need to be 18

00:06:01 - 00:06:08

years or years old or older and an Australian citizen. Now there's also a limit

00:06:08 - 00:06:14

on how much you can end. So if you're an individual, not in a couple, then

00:06:14 - 00:06:24

you need to have earned $125,000 or less per annum per year or $200,000 or

00:06:24 - 00:06:32

less for a couple combined. And the income will be based on your 2018 2019

00:06:32 - 00:06:40

tax return or later. So if you done your 2019 2020 tax return, then it will be

00:06:40 - 00:06:47

based on that. So who is the grant? Not for Well, I mentioned before that it's

00:06:47 - 00:06:54

for owner occupiers, so it's not for owner builders, and I know that's really sad

00:06:54 - 00:06:58

news for a lot of our listeners. because a lot of our listeners are owner builders

00:06:58 - 00:07:04

or interested in becoming becoming becoming owner builders. And it's not for

00:07:04 - 00:07:12

investment properties only either. It's for owner occupiers. Now, if you are

00:07:12 - 00:07:16

wanting Teo, access the grant for a new build. So you wanting to build a

00:07:16 - 00:07:24

property, build a house, then the property value, including land, needs to be

00:07:24 - 00:07:32

under $750,000. What can exceed $750,000 which some people may feel like

00:07:32 - 00:07:37

you know, is not that much, especially considering it's including land. But in

00:07:37 - 00:07:41

you know, I live in Melbourne and in many of the out of suburbs you can get

00:07:41 - 00:07:47

house and land packages for $750,000 or under. Now, if you want to access it

00:07:47 - 00:07:52

for a renovation, the renovation contract needs to be between

00:07:52 - 00:08:01

$150,000.750,000 dollars, and the value of your existing property must not

00:08:01 - 00:08:09

exceed $1.5 million. And also, I'm going to read this okay, and then I'll

00:08:09 - 00:08:13

explain what it means. This is from the original documentation official

00:08:13 - 00:08:19

documentation from Treasury about the homebuilder grant, and that is that the

00:08:19 - 00:08:25

renovation works must be to improve the accessibility, safety and livability off

00:08:25 - 00:08:30

the dwellings. You'd need toe unpack of your builder. Exactly whether or not

00:08:30 - 00:08:34

that applies to the renovation works that you're thinking off. But some

00:08:34 - 00:08:41

examples off what it can't before are things like swimming pools, tennis courts

00:08:41 - 00:08:50

, outdoors bars, saunas and sheds or garages that are not connected to the

00:08:50 - 00:08:55

property. All right, so you think that you might perhaps be eligible for the

00:08:55 - 00:09:00

homebuilder grant, and you've got a new build or a renovation plan?

00:09:00 - 00:09:06

Awesome. So now how do you apply for it? And how do you get some Mohr

00:09:06 - 00:09:14

deeper detail? Well, you need Teo go through your relevant state or territory

00:09:14 - 00:09:18

body will probably thinking, Well, what's that? What does that even mean?

00:09:18 - 00:09:24

We'll go through the list off places that you need to go to get information and in

00:09:24 - 00:09:31

the show notes. I'll have the details so it might be email address or phone

00:09:31 - 00:09:36

number or website, whatever that your particular state or territory wants to

00:09:36 - 00:09:42

provide, like how they want youto contact them. So we've got the revenue

00:09:42 - 00:09:46

office. That's for the Australian Capital Territory. New South Wales Revenue

00:09:46 - 00:09:50

Office, Northern Territories Revenue Office, Queensland Office Off State

00:09:50 - 00:09:56

Revenue, South Australian Review New offer. State Revenue Office off

00:09:56 - 00:10:01

Tasmania State Revenue Office Victoria and finally, Western Australia

00:10:01 - 00:10:07

Revenue Office. Those are the places that you need to go to Teo, get more

00:10:07 - 00:10:18

detail and also to apply. Already, let's get stuck into some off those commonly

00:10:18 - 00:10:23

asked questions. So one of the most commonly asked questions comes from

00:10:23 - 00:10:30

first home buyers, and it is. Will this be paid in addition to the first

00:10:30 - 00:10:35

homeowners grant and the first home loan deposit scheme? If, of course, you

00:10:35 - 00:10:42

are eligible for those and yes, it will be okay, so that's good news. Now, if

00:10:42 - 00:10:46

you're not sure what the first homeowners grant ears and what the first

00:10:46 - 00:10:52

homeland deposit scheme is, you can head over Teo website, violeta finance

00:10:52 - 00:10:56

dot com dot ua. And we've got blogged posts with the details of those on there

00:10:56 - 00:11:02

, and I'll pop links to those blawg articles in the show notes as well. And then

00:11:02 - 00:11:09

the other question that is quite common. And, gosh, I just I was sort of

00:11:09 - 00:11:13

tossing up. We're not even to raise this because I don't really have an answer

00:11:13 - 00:11:18

for it. but I'm going to do it. Okay, So the other question that's quite common

00:11:18 - 00:11:26

is, can you use the $25,000 homebuilder grant towards your deposit? And the

00:11:26 - 00:11:37

answer is, we're still waiting for lenders to finalise their They're lending policy

00:11:37 - 00:11:45

around homebuilder Grant, so there's no kind of big blanket Answer yes or no

00:11:45 - 00:11:54

answer. It really depends on the individual lenders and bank banks lending

00:11:54 - 00:12:02

policy. So what you want to do, in that case is speak to your mortgage broker

00:12:02 - 00:12:09

and just create your deposit strategy with them based on your individual

00:12:09 - 00:12:14

circumstances. WHO which bank you're going toe. Apply floor based on your

00:12:14 - 00:12:19

needs and your goals and your you know whether or not you're meet their

00:12:19 - 00:12:26

servicing criteria. So I can't give you a definitive answer on the podcast. And

00:12:26 - 00:12:30

I'm sorry about that. I would love to be able to, but yet it's a discussion to

00:12:30 - 00:12:36

have with your mortgage broker. And, hey, if you don't already have a

00:12:36 - 00:12:40

mortgage broker, I happen to know a really good one. He's backing this Carlin

00:12:40 - 00:12:46

. You're very welcome to contact him. So yes, call my husband my partner in

00:12:46 - 00:12:52

violent of finance and eye contact details in this show notes as well. So that is

00:12:52 - 00:12:58

thie $25,000 homebuilder Grant. I hope that was helpful. Thank you so much

00:12:58 - 00:13:04

for tuning in next week. Next Thursday, we have Sam's been at back on the

00:13:04 - 00:13:08

show. He was on the show a few months ago, and he is going to talk to us

00:13:08 - 00:13:14

about what a buyer's advocate does and why you should consider working with

00:13:14 - 00:13:18

the buyers Advocate for your next property purchase. And we've got plenty

00:13:18 - 00:13:23

more exciting shows coming up for Siri's for So I'm looking forward to those,

00:13:23 - 00:13:28

and I'm looking forward to chatting with you again soon. Thanks for joining us

00:13:28 - 00:13:32

on the Dream Home movement. Be sure to come over and say hi on Facebook

00:13:32 - 00:13:37

and Instagram. I hope that your dream home projects are going well, and I

00:13:37 - 00:13:39

look forward to chatting with you again next week.