First Home Buyers
Queensland First Home Owner Grant: What Hervey Bay & Maryborough Buyers Need to Know
15 June 2026 · Fraser Coast Home Loans Team
The Queensland First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) is one of the most talked-about — and most misunderstood — pieces of first home buyer support. Here’s how it actually works, and who it applies to on the Fraser Coast.
The current grant amount
The grant is currently $30,000 for eligible contracts, applying to new homes under a set price threshold. It’s a one-off payment, not a loan, and doesn’t need to be repaid provided you meet the eligibility conditions (including living in the property for a minimum period).
New homes only — this trips a lot of buyers up
The single biggest misunderstanding about the FHOG: it only applies to new homes. That means:
- A house and land package in a newer Hervey Bay estate — eligible
- A new build in Craignish or Tinana — eligible
- An off-the-plan purchase — eligible
- An established Queenslander in central Maryborough — not eligible
- An established home in Pialba or Scarness, however lovely — not eligible
If you’ve found your heart set on an older, established home, the FHOG isn’t going to help — but that doesn’t mean there’s no support available. Stamp duty concessions apply more broadly across both new and established homes, so it’s worth checking those separately rather than assuming no grant means no support at all.
Owner-builders
If you’re building it yourself rather than through a builder, owner-builders can also be eligible for the grant under specific conditions — worth flagging early if that’s your plan, since the paperwork requirements differ from a standard building contract.
How this fits with everything else
The FHOG is just one piece of the puzzle. Depending on your situation, you might be combining it with the First Home Guarantee for a low deposit, and stamp duty concessions to reduce upfront costs further. Figuring out which of these actually stack together — and confirming current thresholds, which do change — is exactly what we walk through in a free first home buyer assessment.