SA first home buyers
SA First Home Owner Grant
The First Home Owner Grant in South Australia is a one-off payment from the state government to eligible first home buyers who buy or build a brand new home, being a house, flat, unit, townhouse or apartment, and move into it as their principal place of residence.
Your Mortgage Broker Para Hills(/) arranges home lending across Adelaide's north, and this page sets out what the grant covers in South Australia right now, how it interacts with stamp duty relief, where eligible new stock actually sits around Para Hills, and how the application and payment process runs.
What It Is Worth Right Now
The headline figure is easy: the grant pays up to $15,000, once, per eligible transaction. The surprise sits underneath it. For contracts entered into on or after 6 June 2024, the former property value cap was removed entirely, so an eligible buyer of a new home can claim the grant at any price point. Many older articles still quote caps and banded thresholds that no longer apply to new contracts, which sends buyers hunting for limits that do not exist. The other half of the picture cuts the other way: an established home attracts no grant and no first home buyer duty relief in South Australia, so the rules reward buying new far more strongly than most buyers realise before they start inspecting.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility runs to the person as much as the property, and RevenueSA assesses each application against its own criteria. These are the working rules, with the precise tests on the RevenueSA eligibility page:
First home buyer status
Age and residency rules
A new home only
Occupancy as a residence
One grant per transaction
Timing of the contract
Which Properties It Covers
The property type decides almost everything, because the grant and the duty relief are new-build schemes and established homes sit outside both. This table shows how the main purchase structures are treated:
| Purchase structure | Grant eligible | Duty relief eligible |
|---|---|---|
| New house, never lived in | Yes | Yes |
| New flat, unit or apartment | Yes | Yes |
| New townhouse | Yes | Yes |
| Off-the-plan purchase | Yes | Yes, for off-the-plan apartments |
| House-and-land package | Yes | Yes |
| Vacant land to build a new home | No, claim on completion | Yes |
| Owner-built home | Yes, under conditions | Check with RevenueSA |
| Established home | No | No |
For contracts from 6 June 2024, eligible first home buyers of new homes or vacant land pay no stamp duty at any value, per the RevenueSA relief page. Vacant land is the odd one out for the grant: you buy the land duty free, then claim the grant against the completed home once the build finishes.
Why The Rule Bites Here
Established Stock Dominates
Para Hills is overwhelmingly an established suburb: 97.2 per cent of dwellings are separate houses and only 1.2 per cent are flats or apartments, across about 2,509 dwellings housing 6,793 people. Almost all of that stock has been lived in, which means the grant and the duty relief both miss the houses most buyers here actually shortlist on a Saturday.
New Builds Stay Modest
Recent construction exists but it is thin: 308 dwelling approvals over the last five years, including 75 in 2021-22, with building activity sitting in the 77th percentile within the state. That approvals number says genuine renewal, but it stays small against the established base, so eligible new homes here are scattered infill projects rather than a distinct market.
Where Eligible Homes Sit
The eligible stock clusters in house-and-land estates on Adelaide's northern fringe and off-the-plan apartments further out, not in Para Hills' older street grid. The gap between what the grant rewards and what buyers here usually want, a freestanding house in an established suburb with shops and schools nearby, is real and worth naming before you inspect.
What This Means For Your Search
Practically, you face a fork. Chase the grant and duty relief with new stock in the growth corridors, or buy established in Para Hills knowing neither scheme applies and budget accordingly. Neither path is wrong; the mistake is assuming the money follows whichever home you like best, because it follows the build date instead.
How It Stacks With Duty Relief
Two separate schemes, one outcome for eligible buyers, and the HomeSeeker SA summary spells out the combination plainly:
Grant on top of zero duty
No value thresholds any more
Vacant land qualifies for relief
Established homes get neither
Eligibility is tested twice
How it works
How To Apply And When Money Arrives
- 1
Your Lender Usually Lodges
In the majority of cases the bank or lender providing your finance lodges the application as an approved agent, per RevenueSA, so the paperwork rides along with your loan approval. You apply directly with RevenueSA only when your lender does not handle lodgement itself.
- 2
What You Supply
Expect to evidence identity, eligibility and the purchase or building contract itself, with co-applicants supplying the same documents individually. Because RevenueSA tests prior property ownership and residency criteria, responses there need to be accurate and consistent with what your lender has collected.
- 3
When Payment Lands
The grant is paid once the eligible transaction completes, and no fixed timeline is published on the accessible pages, so avoid planning around a specific date. Ask whether your lender lodges, then ask them directly when the funds are expected relative to settlement for your particular purchase type.
- 4
Keeping The Entitlement
Occupancy obligations continue after payment, so living in the home as your principal place of residence for the required period protects the grant you have received. If your circumstances change mid-occupancy, contact RevenueSA before acting, because treating the requirement casually is one of the reasons grants get recovered.
Worth knowing early
What Gets An Application Knocked Back
The knock-back patterns are well known and nearly all avoidable with a clear read of the rules before you sign:
- Buying established by mistake The most common rejection: purchasing a previously lived-in home and expecting either the grant or the duty relief, when neither scheme covers established property in South Australia at all.
- Assuming old caps still apply Some buyers assume a high-value new home is excluded, or hunt for pre-June-2024 thresholds, when for contracts on or after 6 June 2024 there is no value cap on the grant and no duty threshold for new homes or vacant land.
- No genuine intention to reside Applying while planning to rent the home out, or to leave a family member in residence instead of living there yourself, fails the principal place of residence requirement.
- Assuming the lender lodged Relying on the lender to handle the application and later discovering it was never submitted is a listed failure mode; confirm at the time, in writing, that lodgement has actually occurred.
- Stale advice from old articles Blog posts quoting superseded caps and banded thresholds steer buyers wrong; the RevenueSA pages are the current source, so check there first.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Para Hills arranges first home buyer lending across Adelaide's north east, and grant strategy is part of most of those conversations because the new-build rule shapes where a first deposit goes furthest. We work with buyers in Gulfview Heights, Wynn Vale, Modbury Heights, Modbury North, Para Vista and Ingle Farm, as well as Para Hills itself, and the same fork between grant-eligible new stock and duty-free established homes plays out in each of them.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the SA First Home Owner Grant worth?
Up to $15,000, paid once per eligible transaction. It applies to a new home you buy or build and live in as your principal place of residence.
Can I get the grant on an established home?
No. The grant covers new homes only: a house, flat, unit, townhouse or apartment that has never been lived in. Established homes miss out on the grant and the duty relief.
What is the property price cap for the grant?
There is no value cap for contracts entered into on or after 6 June 2024. The former cap was removed, so a high-value new home is not excluded.
Do I have to live in the property to keep the grant?
Yes. It must be your principal place of residence for the period RevenueSA requires. Check the current occupancy requirement on the RevenueSA site before you commit.
Is the grant different from stamp duty relief?
Yes. They are separate schemes run by RevenueSA. Eligible first home buyers of new homes or vacant land pay no stamp duty at any value, and can also claim the grant.
How long does the grant take to arrive?
It is paid once the eligible transaction completes, with no fixed timeline published. If your lender lodges the application, ask them when the funds are expected.
Mortgage broker for Para Hills and the suburbs around it
Get In Touch
If you are weighing a grant-eligible build against an established purchase around Para Hills, a short conversation will put real numbers on both paths, including deposit, duty and repayment comparisons. Your Mortgage Broker Para Hills works from a panel of lenders, and the first conversation costs nothing. Call (08) 8451 3906 to book a time that suits, or read more about who we are first. Initial advice is free and there is no obligation to proceed.