Renovation Rescue! – HomeBuilder Scheme

On 3 June 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the HomeBuilder scheme for creating more jobs in the building industry.

The scheme will fund grants worth $25,000 for home renovations or new home builds between June 2020 and the end of December 2020. As with all Government-funded schemes, the devil is in the detail. Here are the rules that we know so far:

1. Renovation Rules:

• The renovation contract is a minimum of $150,000 and up to $750,000 per house;
• The pre-renovation value has to be under $1.5m; and
• Contract dates must be between June 4, 2020, and December 31 2020.

2. Building Rules:

• Under the HomeBuilder scheme, you can build a new house, but the house and land must be under $750,000, which links back to First Home Owner Rules around the country;
• Contract dates must be between June 4, 2020, and December 31 2020.

3. Income Eligibility:
   To be eligible, your income must be below the applicable limits. We are not sure at this stage if this will be similar to Centrelink and other provisions based on taxable income, or based on adjusted income which adds back any existing rental property losses that you may have? At the moment, the rules are:

• Single applicants must earn less than $125,000 a year;
• Couples must earn less than $200,000 a year.

For First Home Buyers, this is also a great result, as many first home buyers can build a new house that is under the current First Home Owners Scheme limits for values, and then depending on the state that they live in, get another $10,000 to $20,000, plus up to $10,000 for the Commonwealth First Home Owners Deposit Scheme. For more information on how this affects First Home Buyers, please see our article on that:

First Home Owners – Make the most of these schemes: HomeBuilder & First Home Owners Grant (FHOG)

https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-06/Fact_sheet_HomeBuilder.pdf

https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-06/HomeBuilder_Frequently_asked_questions.pdf