first home buyer queensland: grants, stamp duty and the rules

buying your first home in queensland: the short version

here is the honest, two-minute version before we go deeper. if you are buying your first home in queensland, there are really two state things to get your head around, plus a federal layer that applies everywhere. the two state things are the queensland first home owner grant (a one-off payment, mostly aimed at brand-new homes) and the queensland first home transfer duty concession (which can reduce or wipe out your stamp duty, and unlike a lot of other states can apply to established homes as well as new ones). both are run by the queensland revenue office, and both have eligibility rules and price thresholds that get changed, sometimes in a state budget.

on top of that, there are federal schemes that work the same no matter which state you buy in: a low-deposit scheme that may let eligible buyers get in with a smaller deposit without lenders mortgage insurance, the first home super saver scheme, and the shared-equity help to buy scheme. i walk through all of those in detail on the deposit and grants pillar, so this page focuses on the queensland-specific pieces and points you to the deep pages for the rest.

the single most useful thing i can tell you is the order. work out your deposit and roughly what you might be able to borrow first, then check which queensland and federal schemes you may qualify for, and only then start seriously looking at suburbs and prices. people get stuck when they do it backwards, falling for a brisbane apartment or a house and land package before they know their actual budget. my dad, john kefalianos, is a mortgage broker, and the thing he says most often is that the money picture comes first and the house comes second. the rest of this page follows that order.

the qld first home owner grant: how much, the new-build rule and who may qualify

the queensland first home owner grant is a one-off payment that may be available to eligible first home buyers who are buying or building a brand-new home in queensland. the key word there is new. like a lot of states, queensland aims this grant mainly at new builds, buying a home that nobody has lived in, building on land you own, or buying off the plan, rather than at established homes that have been lived in before. if you are buying established, the grant usually is not the thing that helps you, but the stamp duty concession in the next section often is, so do not switch off yet.

now the part i am deliberately not going to do: quote you a dollar figure. the queensland grant amount is genuinely a moving target right now, because it includes a temporary boost that is scheduled to revert to a lower base amount. if i wrote today's number here, it would be wrong for some of you reading this later, and i would rather you got it right. so the rule is simple. go straight to the queensland revenue office, read the current grant amount, check the price cap on the new home, and confirm whether your build or purchase qualifies before you count on a single dollar of it.

as for who may qualify, the broad shape is what you would expect: you generally need to be an individual (not a company or trust), be an australian citizen or permanent resident, be buying or building a new home in queensland as your first home, move in within a set time and live there for a minimum period, and not have owned a home before. the precise tests and the price cap change, so treat that as a checklist of what to confirm, not a guarantee that you tick every box. check the current rules with the queensland revenue office, and a broker can help you work out whether the grant, the duty concession, or the federal schemes are the ones that actually move the needle for your situation.

the queensland first home (stamp duty) concession explained

stamp duty, which queensland calls transfer duty, is a state tax you pay when you buy property, and after your deposit it is often the single biggest upfront cost. the good news for first home buyers in queensland is that there is a first home concession that may reduce that duty, and in some cases remove it entirely, depending on the price you pay. this is the one that quietly matters most for a lot of people, because it can change your total budget by a meaningful amount.

here is what makes queensland a bit different from some other states. the first home transfer duty concession is not limited to brand-new homes. queensland has a first home concession that can apply to an established home, a separate first home (new home) concession, and a first home vacant land concession if you are buying land to build on. so unlike the grant, which is really a new-build thing, the duty concession is worth checking whether you are buying established or new. there is a price threshold: below a certain value the concession can mean little or no duty, then it tapers as the price rises, then full duty applies past a higher point. those thresholds get adjusted, so they are a check it now number, not something to memorise.

there are conditions attached, and they are worth knowing before you sign anything. broadly, you need to be an eligible first home buyer who has never held an interest in another residence anywhere in the world, you need to move in within a set time (often within a year), and you cannot sell, transfer or lease the property before you move in, with specific rules about renting out part of it afterwards. break those conditions and the concession can be clawed back, so this is not a tick-box, it is a genuine obligation. i would not try to work out your exact duty from a calculator alone. confirm the current threshold and your eligibility with the queensland revenue office, and get your conveyancer or solicitor across it, because how the concession applies depends on your price and your situation.

buying an established home vs building new in qld: what changes for the grant

this is the fork that trips people up in queensland, because the grant and the duty concession point in slightly different directions, and it pays to understand why before you decide.

if you build new or buy a brand-new home, you may be eligible for both the first home owner grant (which is aimed at new homes) and a first home transfer duty concession on the new home or the vacant land. that combination is why some queensland first home buyers lean toward house and land packages or off the plan apartments, the new-build path can open up more help. the trade-off is that building takes longer, the headline price often is not the finished price once you add selections and site costs, and the finance works differently because the loan is usually released in stages. if a new build is on your radar, it is worth understanding where the hidden costs sit before you commit, and i cover that on the cost of buying a first home page.

if you buy an established home, you generally will not get the first home owner grant, because it is a new-home scheme, but you may still get the first home transfer duty concession, which in queensland can apply to established homes. so do not assume an established place leaves you with nothing. for a lot of first home buyers, an established home in a more affordable suburb plus the duty concession is a perfectly sensible path, and it gets you in faster than waiting for a build.

the honest answer is that there is no single right choice, it depends on your budget, your timeline, your patience and which help you actually qualify for. map the grant and the concession together for your situation rather than one piece at a time, and confirm the current rules with the queensland revenue office, because new-build versus established eligibility is exactly the kind of detail that changes.

qld price thresholds for the federal first home guarantee (and where fhss and help to buy fit)

the federal schemes apply no matter which state you are in, but they have one queensland-specific lever you need to know about: price caps that differ by location. the federal low-deposit scheme, now officially called the australian government 5% deposit scheme and still widely searched as the first home guarantee, may let eligible first home buyers purchase with a smaller deposit, in many cases as little as 5%, without paying lenders mortgage insurance, because the government guarantees part of the loan to the lender. it does not give you cash, it removes the lmi hurdle.

the catch for queensland is the price cap. the scheme sets a maximum property price you can buy under, and that cap is different for brisbane and the major regional centres than it is for the rest of the state. so a property that fits under the cap in regional queensland might be priced above the cap in inner brisbane, or vice versa. those caps get reviewed and changed, so i am not quoting them here, check the current queensland price caps on the federal first home buyers site before you assume a property qualifies.

the other two federal schemes round out the picture. the first home super saver scheme may let eligible buyers save toward a deposit inside their super, within set caps, which can be tax-effective for some people. help to buy is a shared-equity scheme where the government may take a share in the property to lower what you need to borrow, a stake rather than a grant, with its own queensland price caps. all three change, all three have eligibility rules, and all three are worth checking against your own numbers. i unpack how each one works, who they tend to suit and how they can stack with the queensland grant and duty concession on the deposit and grants pillar, which is the best next page if you want the full mechanics.

buying in brisbane: getting in with a smaller deposit

brisbane is the head of the queensland market, and it is where a lot of first home buyers start looking, so let me be straight about it. brisbane is not the cheapest place in queensland to buy, but it is far from impossible for a first home buyer, especially once you understand that the deposit you need is not always the full 20% you might assume. with the federal 5% deposit scheme, eligible buyers may be able to get in with a much smaller deposit and skip lenders mortgage insurance, which changes the maths a lot in a city like brisbane where prices are higher.

the move that actually works for most first home buyers in brisbane is not chasing the postcards-perfect inner suburbs, it is looking at the more affordable outer suburbs and the middle-ring areas that quietly fit a first home budget. there are whole pockets of greater brisbane, and the corridors out toward ipswich, logan, moreton bay and the surrounding growth areas, where the numbers are far more reachable than the inner city. i keep the suburb-by-suburb detail on a dedicated page rather than here, so if you want the real list, head to my guide on affordable suburbs in brisbane for first home buyers, where i go into where the value actually sits and what to weigh up, commute, amenity and growth, when you trade location for price.

the deposit itself is the bit that takes time, and it is worth getting a real target and a date rather than a vague save more. for a feel of what buying in brisbane with a genuinely small deposit can look like in practice, there is an episode where we walk through getting into a first home in brisbane with a small deposit, and it is a good listen if the deposit feels like the wall you cannot get over. and once you have a rough deposit figure, talk to a broker early, because what you can borrow and which schemes you qualify for will shape your real brisbane price bracket more than any online calculator.

watch: how getting into a first home in brisbane with a small deposit can actually look in practice.

what to do next as a queensland first home buyer

if you take one thing from this page, take the order. here is the sequence i would follow as a queensland first home buyer, and the pages that go deeper on each step.

first, get your deposit and borrowing picture clear. work out roughly what you can save and what you might be able to borrow, because everything else follows from those two numbers. the deposit and grants pillar covers how much deposit you actually need, what a 5% deposit means, and how the federal schemes change the maths. second, check which queensland and federal schemes you may qualify for: the first home owner grant if you are going new, the first home transfer duty concession whether you are new or established, and the federal 5% deposit scheme, first home super saver and help to buy. confirm every figure and cap with the official source before you rely on it. third, sort finance pre-approval before you start making serious offers, so you are shopping with a real budget instead of guessing. fourth, point yourself at the right price bracket, which for a lot of brisbane buyers means the affordable outer suburbs.

for the full step-by-step walk-through of the whole buying process, the first home buyer guide is the cornerstone page, it maps all eight steps from deposit to settlement and links out to every deep page. for the money detail, use the deposit and grants page and the cost of buying a first home page.

when you are ready to turn this general picture into your own numbers, the next step is a conversation with someone licensed who can look at your situation properly. that is what the team at finance lab does, they work with first home buyers across queensland, can look across a range of lenders rather than just one bank, and will tell you honestly where you stand. there is no promise of an outcome here, just a real read on your own position. you can book a chat with finance lab whenever you are ready, and if you would rather keep learning first, every page linked above takes you deeper.

hear it on the showtop 3 first home in brisbane with a $23,000 depositplay ›

hear it on the showbreaking down the first home guarantee schemeplay ›

hear it on the showunderstanding how home grants work!play ›

hear it on the showhow to start saving for a deposit!play ›

also by location: affordable suburbs in Brisbane · first home buyer Western Australia · first home buyer Victoria · first home buyer South Australia · first home buyer New South Wales

general information only, not personal financial advice. Finance Lab, Credit Representative Number 425945, authorised under Australian Credit Licence Number 389328. scheme, grant and cost figures are explanatory only, change regularly, and were last reviewed june 2026. always confirm current rules with the relevant government source.