WA first home buyers
WA First Home Owner Grant
The First Home Owner Grant in Western Australia is a one-off state government payment of up to $10,000 to eligible first home buyers who buy or build a new residential home, or buy a substantially renovated one.
This page sets out the current grant amount, the value caps, the eligibility rules and the separate duty concessions that apply alongside it, then connects those rules to what is actually for sale around Alkimos, where most of the housing stock is new. Your Mortgage Broker Alkimos(/about/) keeps its figures current against the RevenueWA pages linked throughout.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The figure most buyers remember is out of date, and that is the surprising part. The grant is worth up to $10,000, paid once per eligible transaction, and the cap on the property's value south of the 26th parallel, which includes every Perth suburb, rose from $750,000 to $800,000 for transactions on or after 7 May 2026 under the 2026-27 Housing Taxation Package. Older pages still quote the old cap and the old duty threshold, so anything you read without a date should be treated with suspicion. The grant goes to the transaction, not each applicant: two co-buyers share one payment between them, and the property must be a new home, a substantially renovated home, or a build contract. An established home attracts no grant at any price, which is the single most common misunderstanding among first buyers touring display villages one weekend and open inspections the next.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility is about who you are and what you have owned before, not what you earn. Each of these conditions is set out on the RevenueWA grant page:
Age and capacity
Citizenship or residency
First grant only
No pre-2000 ownership
No recent occupation
Occupancy commitment
No means test
Deadline discipline
Which Properties It Covers
The grant follows the property type and the value cap, and the two interact. This table summarises the position from the RevenueWA publication:
| Property type | Grant eligible? | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| New home, contract on or after 7 May 2026, south of the 26th parallel | Yes | Value up to $800,000 |
| New home, contract on or before 6 May 2026, south of the 26th parallel | Yes | Value up to $750,000 |
| New home, north of the 26th parallel | Yes | Value up to $1,000,000 |
| Substantially renovated home | Yes | Same caps as new homes |
| Build contract or owner-builder construction | Yes | Value tested at completion |
| Established home, contract on or after 3 October 2015 | No | No grant at any price |
Why The Rule Bites Here
The cap and the local stock
Alkimos ranks at the very top of Western Australia's building activity, with 2,694 dwellings approved over the last five years and 714 approved in 2021-22 alone. Almost all of that is new detached housing, and new construction is exactly what the grant rewards. The practical effect is that much of the estate stock selling here sits inside the $800,000 cap, while an established home two streets over attracts nothing.
The gap between eligible and desirable
Homes here skew large: 55.4 per cent offer four or more bedrooms and households average 2.8 people, so the buyers searching this corridor are usually families wanting space rather than apartments. The eligible new stock tends to be house and land packages and recent builds at entry price points, and the larger family homes that suit a growing household can sit at or above the cap. The grant narrows the field before the search even begins.
What the numbers do to a budget
A median household mortgage repayment of about $1,950 a month sits against median household income of roughly $2,035 a week, which is a workable position for buyers entering here, and 62.7 per cent of dwellings are being paid off. A $10,000 grant is real money against a deposit, but it does not change what a lender will assess you to repay, so the property price still has to fit the borrowing.
What it means for your search
The search strategy that follows from the rule is simple: if the grant matters to your deposit, shortlist new and substantially renovated homes under the cap, and check the contract date against the 7 May 2026 threshold before you assume which cap applies. Our construction loans and first home buyer pages cover how the finance side works when the property is a build.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The second scheme is where the money often gets bigger, and the two are frequently confused. The first home owner rate of duty is a transfer duty concession, separate from the grant, with its own thresholds and broader coverage:
Homes with no duty at all
The concessional band
Vacant land
The link was removed
Established homes get the second scheme only
New homes can get both
The figure advertised next to the headline rate on a lender's website never includes duty, so the concession lands as a cash-flow saving at settlement rather than a change to your repayments. It is worth asking your conveyancer to confirm the dutiable value treatment before settlement, because the scheme rules, not the contract price alone, decide the outcome.
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
- 1
Who lodges it
The application is lodged online with RevenueWA or through an approved agent, which in practice usually means your lender lodging it alongside the loan application. Going through the lender is the common route for buyers borrowing most of the purchase price, because the supporting documents largely overlap with the home loan file.
- 2
What you will need
Expect to supply identity documents, proof of citizenship or permanent residency for at least one applicant, the contract of sale or build contract, and evidence supporting the value of the property. If any applicant has previously owned property, records establishing the pre-2000 or non-occupancy exceptions become important, so dig those out early rather than mid-application.
- 3
When the money lands
The sourced pages state that payment is made once the eligible transaction completes; they do not publish a processing timeframe, so no dates can be promised here. For a build, completion is what triggers eligibility, not signing the contract, which means the grant arrives at the end of the construction timeline rather than the start.
- 4
The deadline that actually bites
You have 12 months from the completion date to lodge. It sounds generous, and it is the reason applications still get missed: buyers who lodge with a lender's help rarely miss it, while buyers planning to apply themselves after settlement, once the chaos of moving has settled, sometimes do. Diarise the date the day the contract completes.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
Most refusals are avoidable and traceable to one of a handful of causes:
- Buying established and hoping The most common knock-back. An established home is not eligible under any circumstances, and no amount of first-buyer status changes that.
- Blowing the cap A contract south of the 26th parallel over $800,000 fails, including where the buyer assumed the old $750,000 figure or never checked it at all.
- The occupancy rule Not living in the home for six continuous months, or starting occupation more than 12 months after completion, forfeits the entitlement. Renting the place out while you live elsewhere is a refusal.
- Prior ownership history A previous grant in any Australian jurisdiction, property owned before 1 July 2000, or property owned and occupied for six months or more after 1 July 2004 disqualifies the applicant.
- The deadline Lodging more than 12 months after completion ends the matter, regardless of how strong the eligibility otherwise was.
- Scheme confusion Assuming the grant cap and the duty thresholds are the same thing. They are separate schemes with different figures, and misunderstanding one can cost you the other.
A guarantor arrangement or a low deposit loan can cover a deposit shortfall the grant alone cannot, and our guarantor and low deposit page explains the trade-offs, including the point that any guarantor should get independent legal and financial advice before signing.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Alkimos works with buyers across Perth's northern corridor, and the grant rules in this page apply identically in each of these suburbs: Eglinton, Carabooda, Nowergup, Butler and Jindalee. Each suburb page sets out local housing stock and lending conditions, and the About page sets out the licensee and credit arrangements behind the business.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the WA First Home Owner Grant worth?
It is a one-off payment of up to $10,000, or the consideration paid for the property if that is less. It applies to eligible new or substantially renovated homes.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. Contracts for established homes dated on or after 3 October 2015 are not eligible. Established homes can still attract the separate first home owner rate of duty.
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 it 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 at least six continuous months, starting within 12 months of completion of the transaction.
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 as well, with its own thresholds, and it can apply where the grant does not.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
The sourced pages do not state a processing timeframe. Payment is made once the eligible transaction completes, and you must apply within 12 months of the completion date.
Mortgage broker for Alkimos and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing up whether the grant, the duty concession or a low deposit structure gets you into a home sooner, a conversation with a broker who knows the northern corridor will get the numbers on the table. Call (08) 6311 4005 for a no-cost discussion. A panel of lenders, not one bank's shelf. Fees and commission disclosed in writing before you engage.