Coronavirus Stimulus – up to $25,000 grants for home builders and renovators.

Owner-occupiers, including first home buyers, may be able to access grants of up to $25,000 to build a new home or substantially renovate an existing home.  The partnership between Commonwealth and State and Territory governments aims to stimulate Australia’s residential construction market, create jobs and grow the economy.  Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, tweeted only this morning as to how critical the housing sector is to the Australian economy.  We believe the same could be said for the Central West.

As with all stimulus measures, a number of eligibility criteria apply, including income caps, build or renovation costs and the scheme only applies to principal places of residence, excluding investment properties.   In short, the scheme is open with the following conditions:

• Applicants must be individuals (that is people, not companies or trusts), Australian citizens and aged 18 years or older;
• Applicants must be within the one of the following two income-caps:
  • Individuals earning less than $125,000 per annum, based on 2018-19 tax return or later; or
  • Couples earning less than $200,000 per annum, based on 2018-19 tax returns or later;
• A building contract with the government needs to be entered between 4^th June 2020 and 31^st December 2020, and work must commence within three months of the contract date.
• Contracts are only available to either:
  • Build a new home as a principal place of residence, where the property value does not exceed $750,000.  (Note, if vacant land is built upon, the total value of the land and new building cannot exceed $750,000, regardless of whether the land was owned before 4^th June 2020); 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. (Note, if you own a property and knock the house down to rebuild, this is counted as a substantial renovation, subject to price range limit of $150,000 to $750,000 and total property value limit of $1.5 million).

In line with state or territory regulations, registered or licensed building service ‘contractors’ must be engaged for renovations or building work.  Further, building contracts must be at arm’s length and commercially reasonable.  The works done must improve accessibility, safety or liveability and cannot be used for swimming pools, tennis courts, outdoor spas and saunas, shed or garages (unconnected to the property).

Applications will be via State or Territory revenue offices and available once the relevant governments have signed the National Partnership Agreement.  Agreements will be backdated to 4^th June as appropriate.  

To date, there is no information available on NSW state government website, however we will endeavour to share links as they become available.  In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact YBM for further information.