WA first home buyers
WA First Home Owner Grant
The WA First Home Owner Grant is a one-off payment of up to $10,000 from the Western Australian Government to eligible first home buyers who buy or build a new residential home in this state. It does not apply to established homes.
This page sets out who qualifies, which properties are covered, how the grant interacts with transfer duty relief and where applications commonly fail, with figures linked to RevenueWA. If you are weighing a purchase around Banksia Grove, Your Mortgage Broker Banksia Grove can talk through the lending side once you know what you qualify for.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The payment is a flat up to $10,000, one-off, and where the consideration paid is less than that figure, the grant equals the consideration instead. It is paid per eligible transaction, so two co-buyers on one contract share a single grant rather than each receiving one.
What surprises most first home buyers is not the grant itself but the duties side, because the first home owner rate of duty can be worth far more than the grant on a typical Perth purchase. The two schemes also changed on the same day in May 2026, and plenty of older articles online still quote the pre-May figures, so checking the current RevenueWA pages before you budget is worth the five minutes.
Who Qualifies
The eligibility criteria are set by RevenueWA and each one carries its own trap, so it is worth reading the list slowly. Every condition below must be met at the time of application:
Age and applicant structure
Citizenship or residency
No prior grant anywhere
No pre-2000 ownership
No prior occupied ownership
The occupancy commitment
No means test
The full criteria are published on the RevenueWA grant page, and the prior ownership rules in particular are worded precisely, so read them on the source page rather than relying on a summary like this one.
Which Properties It Covers
The property type rules are where most of the confusion sits, because the grant and the duty relief cover different things. This table keeps the two schemes apart:
| The grant | First home owner rate of duty | |
|---|---|---|
| New home | Eligible | Eligible |
| Substantially renovated home | Eligible | Eligible |
| Established home | Not eligible, contracts on or after 3 October 2015 | Eligible |
| Vacant land | Not eligible | Eligible |
| Value or dutiable value cap | $800,000 south of the 26th parallel, transactions on or after 7 May 2026 | No duty up to $600,000, concession to $800,000 |
The split matters because a buyer who settles on an established home has not missed out on everything. Duty relief still applies on established homes, and the details of that interaction come up in the next section.
Why The Rule Bites Here
Banksia Grove sits well south of the 26th parallel, so the $800,000 cap governs every purchase in the suburb, and the character of the local housing stock decides who actually clears that bar.
Almost everything here is new stock
The suburb is overwhelmingly detached housing, with 95.8 per cent of dwellings being separate houses and effectively none being flats or apartments, and 838 dwellings approved over the last five years across just 3,754 existing homes. That building activity sits in the state's 94th percentile, which means genuinely new, grant-eligible stock is not a rarity here, it is the default product being released.
Big floor plans push against the cap
With 56.9 per cent of existing dwellings having four or more bedrooms, the local market favours large family homes, and larger homes carry larger contract prices. A house-and-land package in the size most Banksia Grove buyers actually want can sit uncomfortably close to the cap, so the contract figure deserves a hard look before you sign rather than after.
Where the eligible money actually lands
The practical sweet spot for a first home buyer here is a new build priced under the duty-free threshold, because that combination collects the full grant and pays no duty at all. Above that threshold and below the grant cap, the grant still applies but duty kicks in at the concessional rate, so the total government assistance narrows as the price climbs.
What this means for your search
If your deposit plan depends on the grant, your search should run through new releases and substantially renovated homes rather than established resales, of which the suburb has relatively few anyway. The first home buyer loans page covers how the deposit works alongside the grant, and the construction loans page covers the build side, where drawdown timing changes the picture again.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
This is the part most buyers get wrong, because the two schemes look similar from the outside and share some eligibility criteria, yet they have different caps, different property rules and different thresholds. The first home owner rate of duty works like this:
No duty on homes to $600,000
A concessional band to $800,000
Vacant land gets its own thresholds
The metro and regional split has ended
The grant cap link is gone
Put together, a new home under $600,000 in Perth can receive the full $10,000 grant and pay no duty, while an established home at the same price receives no grant but still pays no duty. Older pages quoting a $750,000 grant cap and a $500,000 duty threshold are describing the pre-May 2026 settings, which no longer apply to current transactions.
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
The application itself is straightforward, but the timing rules around it are strict and missing them costs people the grant entirely. The RevenueWA grant page carries the official process.
- 1
Lodge online or through your lender
Applications go to RevenueWA either online or through an approved agent, which in practice usually means your lender lodges it as part of the loan process. Going through the lender suits most buyers because the paperwork is already being assembled for the loan, though the option to lodge directly remains.
- 2
Watch the twelve month deadline
The application must be lodged within twelve months of the completion date of the eligible transaction, and this deadline is one of the most common reasons grants are lost. Diarise it yourself rather than assuming someone else will, because the lodgement date is your responsibility, not the lender's or the builder's.
- 3
Payment follows completion
Payment is made once the eligible transaction completes. The sourced RevenueWA pages do not state fixed payment timeframes by purchase type, so do not budget around a promised date; treat the grant as arriving after completion rather than funding your deposit upfront, and plan your cash accordingly.
- 4
Structure the loan around the gap
Because the grant lands after completion, most buyers need a deposit solution that works without counting on it upfront, which is where a guarantor or low deposit structure can help. That conversation sits on the lending side, and it is the right time to involve a broker rather than after contracts are signed.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
The knock-back reasons are well documented on the RevenueWA pages, and nearly all of them are avoidable with a careful read before signing anything. These are the common ones:
- Expecting the grant on an established home This is the single biggest misunderstanding, since established homes have been excluded for contracts dated on or after 3 October 2015, yet buyers still budget for the payment.
- A contract over the cap South of the 26th parallel the value cap is $800,000, and a contract price above it disqualifies the grant entirely, even though duty relief may still apply.
- Breaking the occupancy rule Failing to live in the home for six continuous months, or starting occupation later than twelve months after completion, jeopardises the grant.
- Prior ownership or a prior grant Any applicant who has received a grant in Australia before, or who owned and occupied property under the historical rules, removes eligibility for the whole transaction.
- Missing the application deadline Twelve months from completion is a hard limit, and late applications are refused regardless of how eligible the buyer otherwise was.
- Mixing up the two schemes The grant cap and the duty thresholds are separate schemes with different figures, and assuming they match leads buyers to wrong conclusions about what they will receive.
Before you commit to a contract, work through the RevenueWA eligibility criteria line by line, and if a prior ownership history is complicated, get the position confirmed in writing before you exchange rather than after.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Banksia Grove works with first home buyers across the Wanneroo corridor, including the surrounding suburbs of Neerabup, Pinjar, Mariginiup, Tapping and Carramar. The same grant rules apply everywhere in Perth, but the stock the cap actually bites on differs street by street, which is where a local read helps.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the WA First Home Owner Grant worth?
The grant is a one-off payment of up to $10,000, or the purchase price if that is lower, for an eligible new or substantially renovated home in Western Australia. Two co-buyers share a single grant.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. Contracts dated on or after 3 October 2015 do not qualify if the home is established. Only new builds and substantially renovated homes are eligible, though an established home can still attract duty relief.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
South of the 26th parallel, including all of Perth, the cap is $800,000 for transactions on or after 7 May 2026. North of the parallel, the cap is $1,000,000.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Yes. You must occupy the home as your principal place of residence for a continuous period of at least six months, starting within twelve months of the transaction completing.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are separate schemes. The first home owner rate of duty covers established homes and vacant land too, and since 7 May 2026 it no longer links to the grant cap.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
The sourced pages do not state payment dates. Payment is made once the eligible transaction completes, and you must lodge within twelve months of the completion date, online or through an approved agent.
Mortgage broker for Banksia Grove and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are planning a first purchase in Banksia Grove and want the lending side mapped alongside the grant, call (08) 6311 4005 for a free, no-obligation conversation with Your Mortgage Broker Banksia Grove. You will get a published fee structure, a named broker staying accountable, and straight answers about what your deposit can do.