The two schemes, and why they get confused
Queensland runs two separate forms of help for first home buyers, and they are routinely treated as one thing. They are not.
Transfer duty concessions reduce or remove the stamp duty you would otherwise pay at settlement. There are three, depending on what you buy.
The First Home Owner Grant is a $30,000 cash payment, available only for new homes.
They have different eligibility tests, different value limits and separate applications. Many first home buyers qualify for both, so check each on its own rather than assuming one answer covers the other.
First home concession: established homes
This applies when you buy an existing home to live in. For agreements entered into on or after 9 June 2024:
Valued at $700,000 or less — no transfer duty is payable.
Valued $700,001 to $799,999 — the concession phases out as the value rises.
Valued at $800,000 or more — no first home concession applies.
The maximum benefit is $24,525.
First home (new home) concession: no value cap
For contracts dated 1 May 2025 or later, an eligible first home buyer purchasing a new home pays no transfer duty at all, and there is no value cap.
This is the largest change in the Queensland first home buyer landscape and it is still widely misunderstood. An established home at $850,000 attracts full duty. A new home at $850,000 attracts none.
A home counts as new if it has not previously been occupied or sold as a place of residence, or has been substantially renovated. You will need documentation from the seller confirming that status, and you cannot have previously claimed the first home vacant land concession.
First home vacant land concession
For contracts dated 1 May 2025 or later there is likewise no value cap on vacant land bought to build your first home, and no duty is payable where the whole property is residential vacant land.
The obligation attached to it runs longer: you must build and move into one home on the land within two years of settlement. Miss that and the concession is reassessed.
New from 1 August 2026: citizenship and residency
This is the most recent change and the one most likely to catch out buyers working from older guidance. For transactions from 1 August 2026, all three first home duty concessions require the buyer to be an Australian citizen, a permanent resident, or a specified foreign retiree.
Before that date there was no citizenship or residency test on these concessions. If you are relying on an article or a duty calculator written before August 2026, check this point specifically.
The First Home Owner Grant: $30,000
The grant is a separate payment of $30,000 for contracts signed from 20 November 2023, continuing for eligible contracts signed from 1 July 2026.
It applies only to new homes — newly built, bought off the plan, or substantially renovated. There is no grant for established homes.
The property must be valued at less than $750,000, including land.
You must be 18 or older and buying as an individual, not through a company or trust.
Neither you nor your spouse can have received a first home owner grant anywhere in Australia before.
You must move in as your principal place of residence within one year of the transaction completing.
Can you claim both?
Yes. For a new home under $750,000 the combination is substantial: the new home concession removes the transfer duty entirely, and the grant adds $30,000 on top.
The thresholds do not line up, though. A new home at $780,000 still attracts no transfer duty — there is no cap on that concession — but it sits above the $750,000 grant limit, so no grant is payable. The two schemes have to be checked separately.
Eligibility rules common to the duty concessions
You must be acquiring the property as an individual, not through a company or trust.
You must never have held an interest in a residence anywhere in the world. This is a stricter test than the grant applies, which asks only whether you have previously received a grant in Australia.
You must move in within one year of settlement and live there on a daily basis — two years where you are building on vacant land.
You must pay market value for the property.
You cannot rent out the entire property within your first year of occupancy. Since 10 September 2024, renting out part of it while you continue to live there is permitted under the first home concession.
Failing a post-settlement condition triggers a reassessment, and the obligation is on you to notify the Queensland Revenue Office rather than wait to be found.
Where buyers get caught out
Treating the grant and the concession as one thing. Different value limits, different property tests, separate applications.
Working from pre-August 2026 guidance. The residency requirement is new and is missing from most older articles and calculators.
Assuming a value cap applies to new homes. It does not, for contracts from 1 May 2025.
Buying below market value from family. Paying under market value disqualifies you from the concession.
Letting someone occupy the property before you do. Granting exclusive possession before you move in will cost you the concession.
Thresholds and eligibility rules change regularly. Confirm your position with the Queensland Revenue Office or your solicitor before you sign.
Reading the seller disclosure before you sign
Since 1 August 2025 every Queensland seller must give you a Form 2 seller disclosure statement before you sign the contract. For a first home buyer it is the clearest picture you will get of the property’s ongoing costs: the rates, the land tax position, body corporate levies if it is a unit, and anything registered against the title.
Read it alongside your duty and grant position. A concession worth $24,525 matters less if the disclosure reveals a levy or an encumbrance you had not budgeted for. Our guide to the Form 2 seller disclosure statement sets out what the document must contain, and what it does not cover.
Getting the timing right
Work out your duty and grant position before you start making offers, not after. Which concession applies changes what you can afford by tens of thousands of dollars, and whether a home counts as new is a question to settle with the seller in writing rather than assume from the listing.