Tasmania’s first home owner grant will drop from $30,000 to $20,000 in the upcoming state budget, Treasurer Eric Abetz has confirmed.
The current $30,000 grant expires on June 30 this year and was set to fall back to the base level of $10,000 written into legislation.
Abetz said the government would instead keep it at $20,000 for the next financial year, with a bill to be introduced in parliament shortly.
“Owning your first home is a major milestone, and the grant will make a real difference for Tasmanians trying to enter the market,” he said.
“This measure puts money back into the pockets of first home buyers while also stimulating new housing supply and supporting jobs across the building industry.”
Abetz framed the announcement as part of a broader push to tackle housing affordability and support the construction sector.
The Housing Industry Association had been calling for the grant to be set at $50,000.
Benjamin Price, the HIA’s executive director for Tasmania, stopped short of criticising the figure but acknowledged it wasn’t as high as the industry had hoped.
“We know that there’s a constrained budget environment the treasurer is working through, but this uplift in funding for the first homeowners grant is really welcomed,” Price said.
He said housing demand in Tasmania wasn’t going anywhere and the policy would help push more people to build their first home.
Price also used the announcement to call for planning reform, saying building timelines in Tasmania were longer than on the mainland.
Daniel Egan from Wilsons Homes said around 30% of the company’s customers were first home buyers.
Egan said many of those buyers wouldn’t have been in a position to build without the grant.
He estimated it takes around 12 months to get a home built in Tasmania, with pre-construction alone taking six to seven months due to local regulatory requirements.
He said on the mainland, builders are typically getting to site in around four months.
Andrew Winch, CEO of the Civil Contractors and Equipment Federation Tasmania, welcomed the announcement, saying the grant helped keep his sector busy.
“These sort of commitments and initiatives are fantastic for our sector as part of the large and small pipeline of work that keeps our sector busy and gives us the confidence to invest in people and equipment,” Weaves said.
Abetz warned the budget, due to be handed down on Thursday, would be tough but promised a balanced budget by the end of the forward estimates.
“There will be short-term pain, but at the end of the forward estimates, we’ll have a balanced budget,” he said.
