Give them a break, some advise for first time home owners

There has been a lot of buzz about the special deal the government is offering to first time homeowners, in a nut shell, the grant or – New Home scheme began in January 2012 and provides ‘eligible’ purchasers with exemptions from transfer duty on new homes valued up to $550,000 and concessions for new homes valued between $550,000 and $750,000.

In theory the idea is solid one, however if you live in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs you will know that you will struggle to find an older one bedroom apartment for under 750,000 AUD, let a alone a brand new one…

Daniel Pym a senior Mortgage Broker and financial adviser at Loan Market had this to say, “if you spend $750,000 and receive the $15,000 grant, you then have to pay the FULL stamp duty of $29,240, basically 50% of your grant is gone. This means that clients have to save another $15,000 more just to pay for the stamp duty”

He advises, in order to realistically make the grant work for first time buyers the government should let them buy an existing property rather than a brand new one, for an amount of at least $750,000, pay no stamp duty and apply the $15,000 grant.

We can only hope the Government is listening