WA first home buyers
WA First Home Owner Grant
The First Home Owner Grant in Western Australia is a one-off payment of up to $10,000 for first home buyers who buy or build a new home, or buy a substantially renovated home, within the state's value cap and eligibility rules.
This page explains who qualifies, which properties the grant covers and how it interacts with Western Australia's transfer duty concessions. It also connects the rules to the housing stock around Karrinyup, because the eligibility criteria change what a first buyer here should actually search for.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The grant pays up to $10,000, once, per eligible transaction. The surprising part for many buyers is what the payment does not do: it does not apply to established homes at any price, a rule that has held since contracts dated on or after 3 October 2015. The other number worth knowing is the cap. South of the 26th parallel, which includes all of Perth, the property value cap rose to $800,000 for transactions on or after 7 May 2026, up from the earlier $750,000 that older articles still quote. North of the parallel the cap sits at $1,000,000. The grant and the cap you find on a two-year-old blog post or a national comparison site may both be out of date, and the RevenueWA pages linked here are the current source.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility runs on the applicant and the transaction together, and the criteria are stricter than most buyers expect. The published eligibility rules cover each of these:
Age and applicant type
Citizenship or residency
First buyer status
Prior property ownership
No means test
The occupancy commitment
The application window
Which Properties It Covers
The property type rules are where most confusion starts, because the grant and the duty concession cover different things. This table sets the two schemes side by side, with the figures for transactions on or after 7 May 2026:
| Rule | First Home Owner Grant | First home owner rate of duty |
|---|---|---|
| Property type | New or substantially renovated homes only | Established homes, new homes and vacant land |
| Value cap or threshold, Perth | $800,000 | No duty up to $600,000, concessional to $800,000 |
| Vacant land | Not applicable | No duty up to $450,000, concessional to $550,000 |
| Payment or relief | Up to $10,000, one-off | Reduced or zero transfer duty |
| Established homes | Not eligible at any price | Eligible within the thresholds |
Note the fifth row in particular: an established home never attracts the grant, but it can still receive the duty relief, which is why the two schemes should be assessed separately rather than lumped together as "the first home buyer benefits".
Why The Rule Bites Here
The eligibility criteria read the same everywhere in Perth, but the housing stock in each suburb decides how much the grant is actually worth to a buyer. Karrinyup is a case where the rule bites hard, because the suburb's housing mix sits squarely in the category the grant excludes.
Established Stock Dominates
Around 87 per cent of Karrinyup dwellings are separate houses and only 1.6 per cent are flats or apartments, and the overwhelming majority of that housing is established stock that has traded before. A first buyer searching the suburb's existing homes is therefore searching almost entirely outside the grant's reach, no matter what price they pay.
New Stock Is Where It Counts
The grant only becomes relevant where new dwellings are actually being delivered, and Karrinyup has seen 578 dwelling approvals over the last five years, placing the suburb in the 89th percentile for building activity in the state. New apartments, townhouse developments and land estates within the $800,000 cap are where an eligible buyer should direct the search.
The Eligibility Gap
Here is the tension a first buyer in this suburb needs to plan around: the housing that suits many family buyers, the large four bedroom homes on generous blocks, sits outside the grant, while the new stock that qualifies is concentrated in apartment and townhouse product. The grant rewards a narrower search than the suburb's reputation suggests.
What It Means For Your Search
A buyer who wants the grant in this area should shortlist new or substantially renovated properties under the cap, and treat established homes as duty-relief purchases instead. That changes the whole conversation: land and build options, off the plan product and the construction loan pathway enter the picture, alongside the first home buyer loan process.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The grant and the first home owner rate of duty are separate schemes administered by RevenueWA, and since 7 May 2026 they no longer share a cap link, which means stacking them correctly can matter more than the grant itself. The published duty fact sheet sets out the interaction:
New home under the duty threshold
Between the two figures
An established home
Vacant land builds
The cap link is gone
The practical takeaway is that the duty relief often dwarfs the grant in dollar terms, and the two schemes have different thresholds that must each be checked against the transaction separately.
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
Applications run through RevenueWA, either lodged online directly or through an approved agent, which is typically your lender at settlement. The process itself is straightforward, but the timing rules around it are where applications go wrong.
- 1
Choosing Your Lodgement Route
Most buyers lodge through their lender as an approved agent, because the claim is processed alongside the settlement paperwork, while direct online lodgement with RevenueWA suits buyers settling without a participating lender. Either route leads to the same assessment against the same eligibility criteria.
- 2
The Completion Clock
The application deadline is twelve months from the completion date of the eligible transaction, which for a build means completion of the home rather than the land settlement. Diarise the date when you sign, because a missed deadline forfeits the payment with no discretion.
- 3
When The Money Lands
The RevenueWA pages do not promise a payment timeframe, so treat any figure you read elsewhere with caution. What is stated is that the grant is paid once the eligible transaction completes, so for a purchase the funds arrive at or shortly after settlement rather than before it.
- 4
Keeping The Grant
Eligibility does not end at payment. You must occupy the home as your principal place of residence for at least six continuous months starting within twelve months of completion, and renting the property out instead of moving in can put the grant in question, so plan the move-in date as carefully as the purchase itself.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
Most declined applications are not clerical errors, they are buyers who signed the wrong contract or missed a deadline they did not know existed. RevenueWA assesses strictly against the published rules, and these are the predictable failures:
- Buying established Signing a contract for an established home and expecting the grant is the single most common knock-back, because the exclusion has applied to every contract since 3 October 2015.
- Busting the cap A contract price or value over $800,000 south of the 26th parallel disqualifies the transaction, and buyers working from old articles quoting $750,000 get caught by the out-of-date figure.
- Breaking the occupancy rule Failing to live in the home for six continuous months, or starting occupation later than twelve months after completion, puts the payment at risk after it has already been received.
- Prior ownership or grants An applicant who has previously owned and occupied a home, or claimed a grant in any Australian jurisdiction, fails the first buyer test even if the other applicant qualifies.
- Missing the deadline Lodging more than twelve months after the completion date closes the application permanently, and there is no late lodgement provision to fall back on.
- Confusing the two schemes Assuming the grant cap and the duty thresholds are the same figures under the same scheme leads buyers to price the wrong benefit into their budget, when the two schemes carry different numbers entirely.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Karrinyup works with first home buyers across Perth's northern beachside corridor, including Carine, Gwelup, Innaloo, Doubleview, Scarborough and Trigg. The same grant rules apply in every one of those suburbs, but the stock mix differs suburb by suburb, and that difference shapes whether the grant or the duty relief should drive your search.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the WA First Home Owner Grant worth?
The grant pays a one-off payment of up to $10,000 per eligible transaction, or the consideration paid if that is less. Two co-buyers who qualify together still share the one grant.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. Contracts dated on or after 3 October 2015 are only eligible for new or substantially renovated homes. An established home 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 twelve months of completion of the transaction.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, they are separate schemes with different figures. The grant covers new homes only, while the first home owner rate of duty also covers established homes and vacant land up to its own thresholds.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
RevenueWA does not publish a fixed payment timeframe; the grant is paid once the eligible transaction completes. Applications must be lodged within twelve months of the completion date.
Mortgage broker for Karrinyup and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing up a new build against an established purchase in Karrinyup, the grant rules should inform the search before you sign anything. Call (08) 6311 4000 to talk through your position. You will speak with a named broker operating under a licensed credit representative arrangement, working to a published process with real timelines, and there is no obligation attached to the first conversation.