Every First Home Owner Grant comes with a string attached: live in the property as your home for a minimum period, or the grant stops being something you’re entitled to keep. What happens after that point is decided separately by each state and territory revenue office — but every one of them publishes the same basic answer: notify your revenue office and expect to repay the grant. This article sets out what each jurisdiction confirms about the residence requirement and the consequence of breaching it, and flags plainly the couple of specifics that still need checking directly with your own state.

Residence requirement, defined: the condition attached to a First Home Owner Grant requiring you to live in the property as your principal place of residence for a minimum continuous period, generally starting within a set window after settlement or building completion.

What happens to my First Home Owner Grant if I move out within 12 months?

There’s no single national answer, because there’s no national grant — each state and territory runs its own scheme, with its own residence period and its own start window. What’s common across all of them: if you stop meeting the residence requirement, the grant generally becomes a debt you owe the state, not a fine and not a penalty in the punitive sense. A grant repaid is simply money returned to the government that paid it. How much you owe, whether a separate penalty applies for not telling them in time, and what discretion the revenue office has for genuine hardship — job loss, a relationship breakdown, illness, or a family emergency — depends on the jurisdiction. Every state and territory publishes the repayment obligation itself; a stated discretion to vary the requirement for hardship is confirmed in Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia, but not on New South Wales’ or Victoria’s own pages.

How long do you need to live in the home, and by when? (as at July 2026)

State/territory	Residence period	Must start within
NSW	12 continuous months	12 months of completion/purchase
VIC	12 continuous months	12 months of settlement (ADF exempt)
QLD	6 continuous months	1 year of completed transaction
SA	6 continuous months	12 months of completion
WA	6 continuous months	12 months of completion
TAS	6 continuous months	12 months of completion
ACT	No FHOG since 1 Jul 2019	—
NT	12 continuous months	12 months of completion

NSW’s 12-month rule applies to contracts signed on or after 1 July 2023. The Northern Territory’s 12-month period applies to eligible transactions from 1 October 2024 through 30 September 2027; the Commissioner administering that grant may approve a longer window to move in or a shorter occupation period in special circumstances. Whether the NT Commissioner may also pay the grant in anticipation of the residence requirement being met later is not confirmed on any reachable legislation.nt.gov.au or treasury.nt.gov.au page as at July 2026 — check with the Territory Revenue Office directly for the current position. Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia publish a comparable Commissioner’s discretion for genuine hardship — the specifics are set out below; whether NSW or Victoria offer the same isn’t confirmed here.

What happens if you don’t meet it

Every revenue office publishes the same basic shape for what happens next: tell them your circumstances have changed, and expect to repay the grant — sometimes with a separate penalty layered on top if you don’t tell them in time (as at July 2026):

• NSW: you must contact Revenue NSW immediately if you can’t meet the residence requirement and repay the grant; not doing so can bring a fine of up to $11,000.
• VIC: you must notify the State Revenue Office in writing within 14 days of not meeting the residency requirement and repay the grant; the SRO may also charge penalties and interest.
• QLD: you must tell the Queensland Revenue Office within 14 days of a change in circumstances; depending on your situation you may have to pay back the grant, and separate penalties apply for not notifying them.
• SA: you must tell RevenueSA in writing within 14 days if a change in circumstances means you won’t meet the 6-month residence requirement; a penalty — scaled to the circumstances of the case — can apply on top of paying back the grant.
• WA: you must notify the Commissioner in writing within 30 days of it becoming apparent you won’t meet the requirement; not doing so can mean repaying the grant, being reassessed for duty with penalties, and losing eligibility for a future grant.
• TAS: you must notify the State Revenue Office within 14 days of realising you can’t meet the requirement; if it isn’t met you’ll be required to repay the grant, with further penalties possible if you don’t disclose the breach yourself.
• NT: you must notify the Territory Revenue Office in writing and repay the grant within 30 days of the relevant event — generally the date you should have started occupying the home, or the date it becomes apparent you won’t meet the requirement.

Four of the seven also publish a Commissioner’s discretion to vary the requirement itself for genuine hardship. QLD, WA, TAS and SA can each grant an extension to move in, a reduced occupation period, or a full exemption for one or more applicants, in exceptional circumstances outside the applicant’s control. Whether NSW or Victoria offer comparable flexibility isn’t published on their own grant pages: no discretion to vary or exempt the FHOG residence requirement for hardship circumstances is confirmed on any reachable revenue.nsw.gov.au or sro.vic.gov.au page as at July 2026 — check with Revenue NSW or the SRO Victoria directly for the current position.

The ACT is a different case again. It hasn’t paid a First Home Owner Grant since 1 July 2019 — that scheme was replaced by the Home Buyer Concession Scheme, a stamp duty concession rather than a cash grant. The HBC carries its own residence condition (own and live in the home continuously for at least a year, starting within a year of settlement) and its own confirmed consequence for breach: the scheme is self-assessed, the ACT Revenue Office runs compliance checks that can happen two or more years afterwards, and penalty tax applies at a default 25% where the requirement wasn’t met, on top of the duty itself. That’s useful to know if you’re in the ACT, but it’s a different program to the grant this article is otherwise about — don’t read it across to any other state.

If your plans have changed, who can actually tell you what happens to your grant?

Not this article, and not a general guide anywhere — only the revenue office that paid your grant holds your file and can apply its own rules to your situation. If you’re moving out earlier than planned because of a job loss, a relationship breakdown, illness, or any other change in circumstances, contact that office directly and as early as you can. Several of the offices above note some capacity to vary timing or requirements in individual cases; none of that can be worked out from outside your file, and this article isn’t the place to guess at it.

If you haven’t yet worked out how much you need saved before any of this becomes relevant, our guide to how much deposit a first home in Australia typically needs is a reasonable starting point. And our overview of First Home Owner Grant rules by state covers the eligibility conditions that come before the residence requirement even applies — property type, prior ownership, and citizenship or residency tests.

This article describes what’s published. It can’t tell you what your revenue office will decide about your grant — that determination is theirs to make, on your file, not something a general guide can settle in advance.