HUNGRY TO GRAB LAND

Act swiftly to take advantage of extended HomeBuilder scheme

DEADLINES! Whether it’s that final assignment for university or this weekly column, deadlines constantly creep up on us – and the one for the HomeBuilder grant is fast approaching, set to expire on 31 December 2020 without any extension in sight … or so we thought.

Though I may sound like a broken record at this point, it bears repeating – never have I in my entire career seen a government stimulus program have such a pronounced (positive) impact on the real estate market. Demand for vacant land to be able to build on and be eligible for HomeBuilder has far outstripped supply; so much so it’s now reached the point I’m receiving calls and texts daily from buyers in search of land and desperate to sign a contract. The last time I had a block fall over and become available again, a new contract was signed within two hours for an extra $5000 over the previous price!

This has only progressed the situation with more urgency as the deadline for a build contract looms, meaning a buyer that misses out today is going to miss out on an extra $30,000 to go with their new home. As of last weekend, however, that pressure has come off somewhat with a number of points relating to the HomeBuilder grant now extended, opening up options for buyers.

The headline of course is that eligibility has now been extended to 31 March, 2021 to have a building contract signed, albeit at a lesser amount of $15,000 for those signing up from 1 January, 2021. Further good news for anyone panicking about having their builder commence within the three-month required period is that this has now been drawn out to six months from signing, and is also retrospective to include all HomeBuilder applicants since 4 June, 2020.

Until the Queensland government makes an announcement about its own stimulus, we won’t know whether the extra $5000 will still be included, but $30,000 still makes for an awfully nice leg-up into the market for a first home buyer.

So, what do you do with this information? For buyers, if you had written off your chances of finding a block of land, you now have a slight reprieve – but don’t waste any time ensuring everything’s in order.

Tackle your finance, line up a builder and be ready to move fast as new supply becomes available. For sellers, it’s a bit easier – just pick the right agent and leave it to them!