{"id":400613,"date":"2026-01-08T22:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/400613\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T22:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:11:12","slug":"first-homebuyer-schemes-help-tasmanians-get-into-the-market-but-may-expire-on-june-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/400613\/","title":{"rendered":"First homebuyer schemes help Tasmanians get into the market but may expire on June 30"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alison McNeice’s home is her sanctuary \u2014 in many senses of the word.<\/p>\n

As a wildlife carer, she regularly has a number of rescued birds in and around her house.<\/p>\n

As a first-time home owner, it’s something she doesn’t take for granted.<\/p>\n

\"Alison<\/p>\n

Ms McNeice can care for birds at her home without worrying about landlords. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)<\/p>\n

“It’s fantastic because I’ve been able to take some birds on and help them get homed and have the space to do that without worrying about landlords,” Ms McNeice said.<\/p>\n

It took Ms McNeice seven years to save up to buy her house in 2024.<\/p>\n

It’s a process she found “hugely stressful”, but also “liberating”.<\/p>\n

“Because it was freedom from the rental market.”\"Alison<\/p>\n

Ms McNeice says she would have struggled to buy her first home without government help. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)<\/p>\n

But, she said she doubted she’d be quite where she was now without government concessions.<\/p>\n

“I would have been a lot worse off financially,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It was hugely useful, I really needed it.”<\/p>\n

Deadline nears for local concessions\"New<\/p>\n

A first home buyer who buys or builds a new home can get a $30,000 grant to help. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

Currently, there are a range of concessions available to first home buyers in Tasmania, with two of them due to end on June 30.<\/p>\n

A first home owner grant is available to eligible applicants who buy or build a new home in Tasmania.<\/p>\n

Signs of property market cooling<\/a><\/p>\n

The red-hot Australian housing market is showing the first signs of easing since interest rates started rising in May 2022.<\/p>\n

Until June 30, the amount of the grant is $30,000.<\/p>\n

For first home buyers purchasing established homes with a value of up to $750,000, there is a stamp duty exemption until June 30.<\/p>\n

When asked about the expiration of the concessions, Treasurer Eric Abetz said he was “not going to predict what may or may not be in the May budget”.<\/p>\n

Increase in activity noticed\"Man<\/p>\n

Mortgage broker Jonathon Coleman. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

Tasmanian mortgage broker Jonathon Coleman said he expected the incentives would continue in some form after June 30.<\/p>\n

“I’d find it very surprising if they completely end,” Mr Coleman said.<\/p>\n

“Generally over the years they’ve adapted and changed every year.”<\/p>\n

He said in the past six months, he’d seen a “big surge in first homebuyer activity”.<\/p>\n

“That in turn has meant people selling properties, so not the first home buyers, being able to leapfrog into their next property.<\/p>\n

“So it does actually boost the market and move things along for non-first home buyers as well.”\"An<\/p>\n

The first homebuyer schemes also mean existing home owners will have an easier time selling their homes when they upgrade. (ABC News: Mitchell Woolnough)<\/p>\n

However, Mr Coleman said he had also noticed a lot of confusion from prospective buyers about what schemes were in effect, and how to access them.<\/p>\n

He said making educated decisions was important.<\/p>\n

“There are more than enough options out there, and it’s enabling more people to get into the market,” Mr Coleman said.<\/p>\n

“But because there are so many different ways to get in, that’s where the confusion comes in.”<\/p>\n

State and federal incentives<\/p>\n

First home buyers in Tasmania also have access to the state government’s shared equity scheme MyHome that allows eligible first home buyers to purchase with a deposit of only 2 per cent.<\/p>\n

The purchased property is co-owned with Homes Tasmania and the value cap is $800,000 for new builds, and $750,000 for existing homes.<\/p>\n

\"Sold<\/p>\n

The MyHome scheme allows the purchase of a home with a smaller deposit. (ABC News: Liz Pickering)<\/p>\n

The federal government also has a shared equity scheme, which has fewer restrictions than the Tasmanian scheme, but the state has not signed up to it.<\/a><\/p>\n

Housing Minister Kerry Vincent has previously said the state government would consider the federal scheme once it was operating, “so we can assess its performance against MyHome”.<\/p>\n

Home buyers on government scheme struggling for seller interest<\/a><\/p>\n

When Regan buys his first home, the government will own almost 30 per cent of it. But for that to even happen, a lot of things have to fall into place \u2014 all at once.<\/p>\n

Research from property analyst Cotality shows more growth in house prices in the lower price brackets.<\/p>\n

Cotality research director Tim Lawless said in the lower quartile of the Hobart market, there was a 5.2 per cent rise in house values in the December quarter, compared with a 2.6 per cent rise in house prices in the highest quartile.<\/p>\n

Some of the stronger growth in values at the bottom end of the market has been attributed to schemes to help first home buyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alison McNeice’s home is her sanctuary \u2014 in many senses of the word. As a wildlife carer, she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,13057,91108,23622,213049,7688,177816,66548,8539,2801],"class_list":["post-400613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-first","tag-first-home-buyers","tag-grant","tag-home-buyer","tag-housing","tag-myhome","tag-scheme","tag-tas","tag-tasmania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}