ACT first home buyers
ACT First Home Owner Grant
The ACT does not pay a first home owner grant. Assistance for first home buyers in the ACT comes through the Home Buyer Concession Scheme, a stamp duty concession that removes conveyance duty for eligible buyers purchasing a home or land.
That surprises most people, because national articles still list a $7,000 ACT grant that ended years ago. Your Mortgage Broker Gordon(/) maintains this page for Gordon buyers so the actual rules, set by the ACT Revenue Office, sit in one place. This page covers who qualifies, which properties are covered, how the concession applies and where applications commonly fail.
What It Is Worth Right Now
Here is the surprising fact: the number most buyers carry in their head is wrong, and the real benefit is larger than the myth. The old $7,000 grant is dead, yet what replaced it is worth far more on a typical Tuggeranong purchase. Since 1 July 2026, the 2026-27 ACT Budget has removed both the income threshold and the property price cap, which means an eligible first home buyer pays no conveyance duty at all, on any price of home, whether it is new or established. On a purchase in the several hundreds of thousands, relief measured in the tens of thousands of dollars beats a $7,000 cheque comfortably. The catch is that it arrives as duty you never pay rather than cash you receive, so it shrinks what you need at settlement instead of topping up your deposit. The ACT Revenue Office is the source of record, and its pages carry the current terms.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility under the Home Buyer Concession Scheme turns on five tests, and each one is checked against the transaction itself:
No recent ownership
Age and status
Residence commitment
Property type
No income or price test
Which Properties It Covers
The table below sets out what qualifies and what does not under the current scheme:
| Property | Concession applies? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Established home | Yes | No duty for eligible buyers, no price cap from 1 July 2026 |
| New home | Yes | Same treatment as established homes under the current rules |
| Vacant land to build on | Yes | Must be intended as the site of a home you will occupy |
| Investment property | No | At least one buyer must occupy for 12 months within a year of settlement |
| Company or trust purchase | No | Buyers must be individuals aged 18 or over |
Why The Rule Bites Here
The scheme is generous on paper, but eligibility is one thing and finding an eligible property you actually want in Gordon is another. This is where the rule connects to the local market, and where buyers need eyes open before they search:
New stock is nearly nonexistent
Dwelling approvals in Gordon total just 8 across the last five years, with none recorded in 2021-22, so a buyer hoping to claim the concession on a brand new build here has almost no local stock to choose from. Almost all eligible purchases in this suburb will be established homes, which the scheme treats identically, so the new-versus-established distinction matters far less in Gordon than national articles imply.
The stock skews established and large
The overwhelming majority of Gordon's 2,874 dwellings are separate houses, around four in ten hold four or more bedrooms, and apartments are a genuinely rare sight here. That profile suits families trading up, but a first home buyer on a first budget often needs the smaller, cheaper end of the market, and there is very little of it in this suburb.
The gap between eligible and affordable
With no price cap, everything is technically eligible, but affordability is the real constraint. A median household mortgage repayment of about $1,950 a month in Gordon tells you what serviceability looks like against a median household income near $2,321 a week, and the entry-level price points that suit a first deposit are thinner on the ground here than in denser, more unit-heavy parts of Canberra.
What this means for your search
The concession removes duty from the equation, which is enormous, but it does not manufacture a house you can afford in a suburb with almost no new construction and a large-family housing profile. Plenty of Gordon buyers resolve this by looking one suburb over, which is why the neighbouring areas listed below matter: Bonython, Calwell, Conder and Banks each carry their own stock profile, and a 20 kilometre commute to the CBD is the trade-off you are already accepting here.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
The natural question is whether the concession combines with anything else, and the answer is more straightforward than most buyers expect:
No grant sits underneath it
New and established are treated the same
The Commonwealth deposit scheme is separate
Guarantor structures stack with the concession
Dates decide everything
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
The claim process runs through the transaction itself, handled by your conveyancer or solicitor under the ACT Revenue Office process:
- 1
Claimed at the transaction
The concession is claimed on the transfer at the time duty would otherwise be assessed, through your conveyancer or solicitor, which means there is no separate application form for you to lodge weeks in advance. Confirm with your conveyancer before settlement day that the claim is being made.
- 2
No cash ever changes hands
Because the benefit applies at the transaction, there is no later cash payment and no waiting period for funds to land. The concession is the duty you never pay, so it reduces what you need at settlement rather than arriving afterwards as a refund.
- 3
Your conveyancer does the paperwork
The claim process sits with the conveyancer or solicitor acting on the transfer, so your job is to give them accurate details about prior property ownership for every buyer and each buyer's domestic partner, honestly and completely.
- 4
Lending runs separately from the claim
The duty concession and your home loan are two different tracks with two different sets of checks, and the loan track is where deposit size, serviceability and lender policy all bite. Running both in parallel, rather than assuming the concession solves the lending side, is what keeps a settlement on schedule.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
Most declined claims fail on one of a handful of avoidable problems, and each is checkable before you sign anything:
- Prior ownership in the last five years A buyer, or a buyer's domestic partner, has owned property anywhere within the last five years. This is the single most common failure, and it catches people who forgot a former partner's jointly owned unit.
- Occupancy rule breach Nobody lives in the home for the required 12 months, or occupation starts later than one year after settlement, so a plan to rent the place out first is not a plan the scheme supports.
- Date confusion Assuming the income limit or price cap still applies to a transaction dated on or after 1 July 2026, or assuming those tests never applied to an earlier transaction. The contract date decides.
- Expecting cash Buyers budgeting for a $7,000 grant payment that will never arrive find the shortfall at the worst possible moment, usually days before settlement when the settlement figure arrives.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Gordon works with first home buyers across the southern Tuggeranong valley from its base in Gordon, including Bonython, Calwell, Conder and Banks. If you are weighing the concession against a deposit strategy, the first home buyer loans page sets out the lending side, and the guarantor and low deposit page covers family security structures. More about the brokerage sits on the About page.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the ACT First Home Owner Grant worth?
Nothing, because no such grant exists in the ACT. The scheme ended years ago. First home buyer help now comes through the Home Buyer Concession Scheme, which removes stamp duty for eligible buyers.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
There is no grant, but the Home Buyer Concession Scheme covers established homes, new homes and vacant land to build on. Eligible buyers pay no conveyance duty regardless of which property type they purchase.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
None applies to transactions dated on or after 1 July 2026. The 2026-27 ACT Budget removed the price cap and the income threshold, so no eligible first home buyer pays stamp duty.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Since no grant exists, there is nothing to keep. Under the concession scheme, at least one buyer must live in the home as their principal place of residence for at least 12 months.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes, and the distinction matters in the ACT. A grant is a cash payment. The ACT offers no cash: its assistance is a duty concession applied at the transaction, so no cash arrives later.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
It never arrives, because no ACT grant is paid. The concession applies at the transaction through your conveyancer, so the benefit is duty you never pay rather than a payment you receive.
Mortgage broker for Gordon and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If the concession changes what you can afford, the lending conversation is worth having before you start inspecting. Call (02) 9072 0640 to talk through deposit, borrowing capacity and lender options with a broker who publishes fees and process timelines, and who works across a panel of lenders rather than a single bank. No cost, no obligation, and no pressure to proceed.