NSW first home buyers
NSW First Home Owner Grant
In New South Wales, the First Home Owner Grant is a one-off payment of $10,000 to eligible first home buyers who buy or build a new home, an off-the-plan home, or a substantially renovated home never previously sold or occupied.
Your Mortgage Broker Emu Plains is a mortgage broking business based in Emu Plains, and this page sits at the top of our first home buyer guide. It covers what the grant pays, who qualifies, which properties are covered, how it combines with duty relief, and how to apply.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The payment is a one-off $10,000 per eligible transaction, and it has been that figure for some years now, which surprises buyers who arrive carrying numbers from older articles. Some third-party sites still quote a much larger amount that has not applied for a long time and cannot be verified against any current government source; the only figure Revenue NSW publishes today is $10,000. The amount and the value caps also came through the 2026-27 NSW Budget, handed down on 23 June 2026, unchanged, so there is no pending adjustment to wait for. If you are comparing what you might receive against what you might have received under rules from a few years ago, work from the current Revenue NSW page and nothing else, because the difference between the current scheme and the folklore version is large enough to change a deposit plan.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility is tested on the applicants, not just the property, and several tests catch people out:
Citizenship at settlement
Natural persons only
Prior ownership test
Once in a lifetime
Occupancy commitment
Partner's history counts
Which Properties It Covers
The property test is where most applications live or die, so it is worth seeing in one place:
| Property type | Grant eligible | Value cap |
|---|---|---|
| New home and land, one contract | Yes | $600,000 |
| Vacant land plus separate building contract | Yes, combined value | $750,000 combined |
| Off-the-plan purchase of a new home | Yes | Within the caps above |
| Substantially renovated, never lived in or sold since | Yes | Within the caps above |
| Established home, previously lived in or sold | No, at any price | Not applicable |
The last row is the one that matters most around Emu Plains, and the next section explains why. All caps and property tests come from the Revenue NSW grant page.
Why The Rule Bites Here
Where eligible stock sits
New housing in Emu Plains arrives slowly, with 182 dwelling approvals recorded across the last five years, and it clusters in townhouse infill around Lennox Village and the railway station rather than across the detached estates that dominate the suburb.
The established home problem
Roughly eight in ten dwellings here are separate houses on generous blocks, built mostly between the 1960s and the 2000s, and every one of them fails the new-home test that decides grant eligibility, however modest the asking price to be.
Where the median sits
Whether the suburb's median house price has crossed the $600,000 cap is the wrong question for most local buyers, because the cap only matters for new stock, and prices for established houses here sit well beyond what grant rule touches.
The gap that matters
The gap is between eligible and desirable: a new townhouse near the station qualifies for the $10,000 payment, while an established cottage on Russell Street does not, so the grant quietly shapes which streets a first home buyer can search.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The grant is only half the support available, and the two schemes overlap in ways worth understanding before you set a budget:
The duty scheme is separate
Full exemption up to $800,000
Concession to $1,000,000
Vacant land thresholds
Both can stack
Established homes still benefit
The 2026-27 Budget changed neither scheme, so both sets of thresholds current on the Revenue NSW assistance page apply now.
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
Where to lodge
Most applications go through an approved bank or lender acting as agent for Revenue NSW, lodged alongside the home loan itself, though buyers whose lender is not an approved agent can lodge directly with Revenue NSW once eligibility is confirmed.
Built and ready
A home already built and ready to occupy generally sees the grant paid at settlement, which means the $10,000 lands at the same time as the keys, and buyers can confirm the payment detail with their lender before that date.
Construction contracts
For a build under a construction contract, payment typically follows the first progress payment made to the builder, so the grant arrives early in the project rather than at the end, which can help with cash flow during construction stages.
Off the plan
An off-the-plan purchase is typically paid at settlement, which can sit well beyond the contract date depending on developer completion, so buyers should plan their finances around a payment that may be years away from the day they finally sign.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
Revenue NSW declines applications for reasons that are almost all avoidable with checking before exchange:
- Wrong property type Assuming any first home purchase qualifies rather than checking the new-home test, the most common mistake of all and the one that wastes the most search time.
- Missing the occupancy window Not moving in within 12 months, or moving out before completing 12 months of continuous residence, triggers repayment of the grant.
- Prior ownership anywhere An applicant or their partner having previously owned residential property anywhere in Australia, even briefly or in another state, disqualifies the application.
- Wrong applicant structure Applying as a company or trust rather than as natural persons, which fails the eligibility test on its face.
- Price just over the cap A contract price marginally above $600,000 or $750,000 disqualifies the whole application. The grant does not reduce, it disappears.
- Incomplete documents Missing identity, contract or citizenship evidence at lodgement delays or derails processing, so assemble the file before lodging rather than after a request arrives.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Emu Plains arranges home loans across the City of Penrith and the lower Blue Mountains from our Emu Plains base, and first home buyers in any of these neighbouring areas can use this guide alongside a local lending conversation: Castlereagh, Penrith, Jamisontown, Regentville, Leonay and Glenbrook. For the lending side of a first purchase, including deposit options and how lenders assess first timers, read our page on first home buyer loans.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the NSW First Home Owner Grant worth?
The grant pays a one-off $10,000 per eligible transaction. It has stayed at that amount for some years, and the 2026-27 NSW Budget made no changes to it, so older articles quoting larger sums are out of date.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. A home someone has previously lived in or sold is ineligible at any price, even well under the value caps. Only new homes, off-the-plan purchases and substantially renovated homes that have never been occupied qualify.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
The cap is $600,000 for a home and land bought under one contract, or $750,000 combined for vacant land with a separate building contract. A price even marginally over the cap disqualifies the whole application.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Yes. For 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 to keep the payment.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are separate schemes. The grant is a $10,000 payment for new homes only, while the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme reduces transfer duty on new and established homes up to different thresholds.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
It depends on the purchase stage. A built home is generally paid at settlement, an off-the-plan purchase at its later settlement, and a construction build typically after the first progress payment goes to the builder.
Mortgage broker for Emu Plains and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing a new build or townhouse purchase against an established home, and wondering what the grant and duty relief actually do to your deposit, a short conversation will put numbers around it. Call (02) 9072 0647 during business hours or send a message through the site, and you can check our licence and fee details on the about page before we speak. We are a broking business, not a lender, and everything on this page is sourced to Revenue NSW so you can verify it yourself.