The Federal Government has announced a $25,000 HomeBuilder tax-free stimulus grant. The stimulus is targeted at home owners to build new houses or renovate their existing ones. The grant is available where a contract is signed between 4 June 2020 and 31 December 2020.
The Federal Government hopes this new HomeBuilder scheme will encourage home owners to spend money on construction and keep hundreds of thousands of builders and tradespeople employed in the wake of a possible downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
HomeBuilder is a time-limited grant program aimed at helping the residential construction market bounce back from the Coronavirus crisis. It is available alongside existing State and Territory First Home Owner Grant programs, stamp duty concessions and other grant schemes, as well as the Commonwealth’s First Home Loan Deposit Scheme and First Home Super Saver Scheme.
Eligibility
To access HomeBuilder, owner-occupiers must meet the following eligibility criteria:
- You are aged 18 years or older;
- You are an Australian citizen;
- You meet one of the following two income caps:
- $125,000 per annum for an individual applicant based on your 2018-19 tax return or later; or
- $200,000 per annum for a couple based on both 2018-19 tax returns or later;
- You enter into a building contract between 4 June 2020 and 31 December 2020 to either:
- Build a new home as a principal place of residence, where the property value does not exceed $750,000; or
- Substantially renovate your existing home as a principal place of residence, where the renovation contract is between $150,000 and $750,000, and where the value of your existing property does not exceed $1.5 million;
- Construction must commence within three months of the contract date.
How to Apply?
The Treasury has announced that Australians will be able to apply for the HomeBuilder grant after their state or territory government signs the National Partnership Agreement with the Commonwealth Government.
Critical information such as when you’ll be able to sign up and how you can apply will be available through the relevant state or territory revenue office in the near future.
Visit business.gov.au for updated state and territory information as it becomes available.
Budget Impact
The expected total cost to the budget is $680 million. This is for approximately 27,000 grants. However, this final figure might be vastly different as it is highly dependent on how many people actually take up the grant as HomeBuilder is an uncapped program.
Tasmanian Government Increases Grant
The Tasmanian state government has added an extra $20,000 of the current $25,000 to the grant, bringing it to $45,000.
“This will be open for the next six months from today and I am so very pleased that the Federal Government are making a $25,000 injection as well, meaning that there will be for those who qualify, $45,000 available if you’re going to build a home in Tasmania,” said Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein.
“That $45,000, you’ll need to sign up to a contract from today and before the end of December, you will need to be able to begin construction within three months and then you’ll have two years to complete that construction.”
“There has never been a better time to build a house in Tasmania ever.”
Feel free to contact us if you would like to take advantage of this exceptional government grant to do a major renovation or build a new home. We can help advise you of the right finance option for your construction project.
Please Note: Many of the comments in this publication are general in nature and anyone intending to apply the information to practical circumstances should seek professional advice to independently verify their interpretation and the information’s applicability to their particular circumstances.