QLD $30k First Home Grant Halves July 1 2026

Queensland's boosted First Home Owner Grant of $30,000 for new builds expires on June 30, 2026. From July 1, the grant reverts to its long-standing baseline of $15,000. That is a $15,000 difference for first home buyers who time the contract date correctly, and a $15,000 loss for buyers who do not. If you are even loosely considering a new build, a townhouse off the plan, or a house and land package in Queensland, the next few weeks are the most consequential of your purchasing year.

The deadline math: contract date, not settlement date

The single most important detail in this deadline, and the one most commonly misunderstood, is which date the Office of State Revenue actually checks. For the Queensland FHOG, it is the contract date, not the settlement date or the completion date.

• Contract signed on or before June 30, 2026: the grant amount is $30,000, even if the home does not finish being built until 2027 or later.
• Contract signed on or after July 1, 2026: the grant amount is $15,000, regardless of how quickly the property settles.

This is a meaningful contrast with Tasmania's first home buyer stamp duty exemption, which is keyed to the settlement date and therefore requires the entire transaction to complete before the cut-off. The Queensland rule is easier to capture in time, but only if buyers understand it well enough to act on it.

Why house and land buyers should pay closest attention

House and land packages are signed early, often months or years before the home is built and occupied. The contract date trigger means a Queensland buyer who signs a house and land contract on June 29, 2026 for a property that will not be ready to live in until late 2027 still qualifies for the full $30,000 grant. That is one of the most underreported pieces of practical advice in the Australian first home buyer market right now.

If you have been touring display homes and slowly working through floor plans, the rational move is to bring your decision forward. Practical implications:

• Reserve a block and lock the build contract early. If you are confident in the developer, the location and the inclusions, signing in June rather than August captures the $15,000 difference even though the home will not exist for a year or more.
• Get pre-approved before you sign. A finance condition gives you an exit if your borrowing capacity moves, but the cleaner path is to walk in already pre-approved with a recent servicing buffer test.
• Read the contract conditions carefully. Make sure your builder's standard contract reflects the FHOG application timing your conveyancer expects. A small wording issue can delay the grant payment but should not affect eligibility if the contract date itself is before July 1.

What a $700,000 new build looks like with everything stacked

At a new build price of $700,000 in South East Queensland, before July 1, 2026, the support a first home buyer may be able to access is large enough to materially change the deposit and repayment picture:

• FHOG: up to $30,000 in cash paid at or shortly after settlement.
• Stamp duty on a new home: Queensland first home buyers building a new home are eligible for a full concession, meaning zero transfer duty at this price point.
• Help to Buy: the federal shared equity scheme can take up to a 40% equity stake on a new home, contributing around $280,000 against a $700,000 purchase. The buyer's loan and deposit then sit against the remaining $420,000.
• FHSS: up to $50,000 of voluntary super contributions, plus deemed earnings, can be released to use toward the deposit if you have been salary sacrificing.

The stacked support is not free money. Help to Buy in particular comes with strings: the government holds equity, shares in capital gains, and exits on sale or refinance. The Grant Stacker walks through which schemes you may be eligible for and how they combine, and the FHOG Dashboard shows the Queensland grant rules side by side with every other state.

What qualifies and what does not

The Queensland FHOG is narrow by design. To qualify:

• The home must be brand new. A property that has previously been occupied as a residence does not qualify, even if the seller has only owned it for a few months.
• The total value must be $750,000 or less. For house and land, this is the combined price of the land plus the build, not the land or build figure alone.
• You must move in within one year. The property must be your principal place of residence for a continuous period of at least 6 months, starting within 12 months of settlement or completion.
• You must not have previously owned property in Australia. This applies to every applicant on the title. If one purchaser has owned before, the grant is not payable.

Buyers who miss out, regardless of contract date:

• Buyers of established homes get no FHOG at all in Queensland. They may still be eligible for a stamp duty concession depending on the purchase price.
• Buyers over the $750,000 cap receive nothing, even if they are otherwise eligible. The cap is a hard cliff, not a sliding scale.
• Previous property owners are ineligible, even if the prior property was an investment held briefly years ago.

What this means for you

Before July 1, the path forward is structured and time-bound. If you are seriously considering a Queensland first home in the next 12 to 24 months, work through the checklist below in the next two to three weeks:

• Get pre-approval in writing. Speak to your lender or a mortgage broker about a current servicing assessment. Pre-approval is the gating step for everything else and can take 2 to 4 weeks on its own.
• Shortlist new build or house and land options under $750,000. Established homes do not qualify for the grant in Queensland. Builders and developers serve a real purpose here, and a good agent can move a shortlist to a decision quickly.
• Confirm eligibility with your conveyancer. Have your Queensland conveyancer confirm in writing that the contract structure preserves your $30,000 entitlement, especially for house and land contracts with staged payments.
• Model the hidden costs of a new build. Site costs, landscaping, fencing, driveways and inclusions upgrades can add tens of thousands to the headline price. The True Cost Calculator reveals the full year-one figure so a $700,000 build does not turn into a $760,000 outlay you did not plan for.
• Stress test your repayments. Use the Stamp Duty Calculator to confirm your duty position and then check what the loan would look like if rates moved up by one to two percentage points. The contract-date urgency should not push you into a property that becomes uncomfortable to service.

If the Queensland Government announces a further extension, you will have lost nothing by being ready early. If it does not, the $15,000 difference is locked in by the contract you sign before June 30.

Run the numbers

These tools model your specific situation so you can decide based on figures, not pressure:

• Grant Stacker - confirms which state and federal schemes you may be eligible for, and the combined dollar value of capturing the $30,000 grant before July 1.
• FHOG Dashboard - shows the Queensland grant rules, the $750,000 cap and the post-July 1 drop alongside every other state and territory.
• True Cost Calculator - models the real year-one cost of a new build, including site costs, landscaping and inclusions that often sit outside the headline contract price.
• Stamp Duty Calculator - confirms your Queensland stamp duty position on a new home and shows the combined out-of-pocket figure once the FHOG and concession are applied.