Established in July 2017, the ‘Homes for Victorians’ scheme was created to give a larger percentage of young Victorians a chance to buy a home of their own. As part of the package, no stamp duty is payable on first homes that cost less than $600,000 and there are large discounts on stamp duty for homes under $750,000.
In delivering the results recently, Treasurer Tim Pallas said that $1.76 billion, including $1.4 billion in Melbourne and $309.8 million in regional Victoria, have been saved by the 100,000 new homeowners who have taken part in the scheme, adding:
“Homeownership is something increasingly difficult for young Victorians to achieve, but we’re providing that little bit of help that makes it a reality.”
He said the most popular Local Government areas in the scheme were Casey, where applicants saved $174.9m, Wyndham ($159.2m) and Hume ($123.8). Regionally, the top three were Geelong ($74.4m), Bendigo ($23.7m) and Ballarat ($24.1m).
Brochure printing campaigns by real estate firms have often drawn great interest from first home buyers, who often struggle to raise the funds needed to make a purchase.
Mr Pallas said that those wishing to buy or build their first new home could also be eligible for a First Home Owner Grant of $10,000, with $20,000 available for those in regional areas of Victoria.