Legal Tip 239: NSW Laws for First Home Owners

There tend to be a lot of questions on propertychat by first home owners about the various grants and duty concessions. Most people just go to various websites to try to work out eligibility etc, or seek legal advice from mortgage brokers, but the best thing to do is to look at the actual legislation itself.

For NSW property I have listed the relevant legislation below.


For the Grant see:

FIRST HOME OWNER GRANT (NEW HOMES) ACT 2000 (NSW)
FIRST HOME OWNER GRANT (NEW HOMES) ACT 2000 - As at 1 July 2018 - Act 21 of 2000


For stamp duty concessions see:

DUTIES ACT 1997 (NSW)
See Part 8
DUTIES ACT 1997 - As at 1 July 2019 - Act 123 of 1997


For example

Someone who has a spouse who has previously owned an investment property. First look at the FHOG Act, search for ‘eligibility’. Read thru the relevant sections. Find and read s11.

 

Am I correct in my understanding if an individual is a personal trustee or a director of a corporate trustee of a unit trust that held residential property, but that individual wasn't a unit holder then they would still be eligible for both FHOG & Stamp Duty exemption in NSW?

 

What does the legislation say?

 

The above is the relevant section and based on that my assumption is that both FHOG & stamp duty exemption in NSW will apply.

 

That is from the FHOG act I wouldn't assume it applies to stamp duty without checking.