Can I get the first home buyer grant if I buy a house and land package in Queensland?

Yes, in most cases — but it depends on meeting the grant’s conditions, not on the house-and-land format alone. A house and land package is usually built under a comprehensive home building contract for a new home, and that’s exactly the kind of purchase the Queensland First Home Owner Grant is designed for. As at July 2026, the grant is $30,000 for contracts signed on or after 20 November 2023, with no published end date. Whether your specific package qualifies still comes down to the value cap, the occupancy rules, your citizenship or residency status, and whether you or your spouse have owned property before — all set out below.

A house and land package means buying vacant land and entering a separate (or bundled) contract for a builder to construct a new home on it, rather than buying a home that’s already built. Because the home doesn’t exist yet at the time you sign, it’s automatically a “new home” for grant purposes, which is the main property-type test the grant applies.

What are the conditions for the QLD First Home Owner Grant?

The Queensland Revenue Office (QRO) sets these conditions for the current $30,000 grant, all confirmed current as at July 2026:

• Value cap: the value of your new home must be less than $750,000, including the land and any contract variations. A package valued at $750,000 or more is not eligible — QRO’s wording is a strict “less than,” not “up to.”
• Property type: new homes only — a home that hasn’t been previously occupied or sold as a residence, including comprehensive home building contracts (the house and land package structure), off-the-plan purchases, and owner-builder construction. There is no grant for established homes.
• Applicant: a natural person aged 18 or over; an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or applying jointly with someone who is. (A New Zealand citizen holding a Special Category visa and a current NZ passport is treated as a permanent resident for this specific grant.)
• Prior ownership: you and your spouse must not have previously received a first home owner grant in any Australian state or territory, and must not have owned residential property in Australia on or after 1 July 2000 (an investment property never lived in doesn’t disqualify you, but you’ll need to evidence that).
• No income test: QRO states plainly that your income has no bearing on eligibility.
• Occupancy: you must move into the home as your principal place of residence within 1 year of the completed transaction and live there continuously for at least 6 months.

None of these conditions turn on whether you bought an already-built new home or a house and land package — the package route just needs to land within the same $750,000 combined cap and meet the same occupancy and ownership tests as any other new home purchase.

Is the grant separate from stamp duty relief in Queensland?

Yes — and this is where readers most often get confused, because Queensland runs three separate duty concessions alongside the grant, and none of them change how much grant money you receive.

For a new home (which includes a house and land package): agreements dated 1 May 2025 or later get a full duty concession that reduces transfer duty to nil, and there is no value cap on the home and residential land attributed to it. Duty can still apply to any additional land that doesn’t form part of the residence.

For vacant land intended for your first home: agreements dated 1 May 2025 or later also get nil duty with no value cap, if the whole property is residential vacant land.

Both of these are duty concessions, assessed by QRO when your transfer is stamped — they sit alongside the $30,000 grant, not instead of it. QRO is explicit that being eligible for a national home buyer scheme, and by extension other QLD concessions, doesn’t affect your grant eligibility, and the reverse holds too: claiming the grant doesn’t reduce what you can claim on duty.

Coming 1 August 2026 — not yet in force. Queensland has confirmed that buyers purchasing a home, first home, or vacant land to build a first home will be required to be Australian citizens, permanent residents or specified foreign retirees, for transactions entered into from 1 August 2026. As at July 2026, this citizenship test is not yet operating — QRO’s pages currently state that you don’t need to be a citizen or permanent resident to claim these duty concessions (though the foreign acquirer surcharge may still apply). This is a duty-concession rule, and does not change the First Home Owner Grant’s own citizenship/PR test above.

What could stop a house and land package from qualifying?

The format itself isn’t the risk — these are the conditions worth checking against your specific contract:

• The combined value: land price plus build cost plus any contract variations, all counted together against the $750,000 cap.
• Timing of your contract and any prior ownership — the grant is assessed against your (and your spouse’s) full property history, not just this purchase.
• Whether the home is genuinely new by the time it’s finished — QRO’s anti-avoidance rule denies the concession if you demolish an existing home without living in it first.

A licensed conveyancer or property lawyer reviewing your specific contract — land contract, building contract, and any staged settlement — is the right way to confirm your package meets every condition before you rely on the grant or the duty concession in your budgeting.

For how a QLD house and land package fits into your overall deposit picture, see our guide to how much deposit you need for a first home in Australia.