‘HomeBuilder’ Grant EXTENDED AND Available at Gregory Hills

Looking to Build your brand new home at Gregory Hills? Well your timing couldn’t have been better!

‘HomeBuilder’ is a new government incentive which provides eligible owner-occupiers with either a $15,000 or $25,000 cash grant.
With Gregory Hills as your perfect location and ‘HomeBuilder’ offering you an opportunity not to be missed, now is the time to kick start your new home dreams at Gregory Hills.

To access Homebuilder, owner-occupiers must meet the following eligibility criteria:

  • you are a natural person (not a company or trust);
  • you are aged 18 years or older;
  • you are an Australian citizen;
  • you meet one of the following two income caps: $125,000 per annum for an individual applicant based on your 2018-19 tax return or later; or $200,000 per annum for a couple based on both 2018-19 tax returns or later;
  • you enter into a building contract between 4 June 2020 and 31 December 2020 to receive the $25,000 grant or between the 1st January 2021 and 1st March 2021 to receive the $15,000 grant. This grant must be used to build a new home as a principal place of residence, where the property value does not exceed $750,000
  • construction must commence within six months of the contract date

More information regarding the Australian Governments ‘HomeBuilder’ grant is available to view via the Australian Government Treasury website at https://www.revenue.nsw.gov.au/grants-schemes/homebuilder

LATEST INFO ABOUT THE EXTENSION OF THE HOMEBUILDER SCHEME: 
https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus/homebuilder

Gregory Hills: Built for THE first home buyers

First Home Buyer Gregory HillsGregory Hills is the perfect community for first home buyers, offering a central location in the fast-growing South West Sydney region with all the lifestyle, convenience, and well-appointed amenities that first home buyers desire – and all at an affordable price.

When you build your first home in Gregory Hills, you are prioritising easy living for you and your young family. It may sound too good to be true, but Gregory Hills really does have it all. So much of what first home buyers and young families crave is located within Gregory Hills, including:

 - Our brand new Gregory Hills Town Centre, featuring Woolworths, BWS, restaurants, cafes and specialty stores.
 - A varied collection of 10 parks and playgrounds that includes sports fields, a dog park, and the newly opened super playground, Howard Park.
 - A family medical centre.
 - Three childcare centres.
 - Schools, including the future Gregory Hills Public Primary School.

All of these enticing features and facilities are within walking distance when you choose Gregory Hills for your first home. And you’ll be 15 minutes or less from major shopping centres such as Narellan Town Centre, as well as Campbelltown train station, Campbelltown Hospital, and access to the Hume Highway (connecting to the M5 and M7). 

Build your first home in Gregory Hills

With well-priced land, as well as house and land packages, available that enable first home buyers to take advantage of government grants and concessions, choosing Gregory Hills as the location for building your first home is an easy decision to make. 

Buying your first home in Gregory Hills will be more affordable than ever thanks to the new First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, which came into effect on January 1, 2020. This popular incentive will make it even easier to become a homeowner sooner. Read more about the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme.

In addition to this new government incentive there are also a number of existing grants and schemes available for first home buyers. These are the: 

  • First Home Owner’s Grant (New Home) scheme: If you’re a first home buyer and you’re buying or building a new home you may qualify for a $10,000 grant under this scheme. To qualify, the purchase price must be no more than $750,000 for home and land, or $600,000 for home only. You must also be over 18 and an Australian citizen or permanent resident. Read more about the First Home Owner’s Grant (New Home) scheme.
  • First Home Buyers Assistance scheme: If you’re a first home buyer you may be entitled to a concessional rate of transfer duty, or even an exemption from paying it altogether, under the First Home Buyers Assistance scheme (FHBAS). The FHBAS applies to buying an existing home, buying a new home, and vacant land on which you intend to build a home. To qualify, you must be over 18, an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and have never owned or co-owned residential property in Australia. Read more about the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme.

More information about these grants is available to view via the Department Of State Revenues website at www.revenue.nsw.gov.au/grants-schemes.

Useful Information

Government Incentives

How to buy land?

How to buy house and land?

10 Tips First Home Buyers Should Know

Given this is your first foray in to the housing market, you will need to conduct some thorough research. One of the most important things to consider is where you want to live. If you have an idea of the area you want to live in, you can then start to get an idea of price and what you can afford. Also, visit the friendly Gregory Hills team who will be able to show you the many highlights of living in an existing community.

There are various tools out there from lending institutions that will help you calculate how much you can borrow. The best idea would be to book an appointment with your local financial institution or lending agency and have a face-to-face discussion. They will be able to ask you the right questions needed to determine the amount you borrow.

According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, home buyers should aim to have 20% of the purchase price, and enough to cover ongoing costs. Obviously the more you save the less you will need to borrow.

Aside from the purchase price of the house, there are some lead-up costs that are involved. One of the biggest costs will be the deposit. While 20% of the purchase price is ideal, some lenders will accept 5%, and then you will have Transfer Duty on top which can be a few thousand dollars. Other up-front costs that may fly under the radar are:

  • Legal and conveyancing fees
  • Removalist and cleaning costs
  • House inspections

Buying your first home can be an exciting experience. And in most cases, you want it to happen as soon as possible, and therefore patience will not be your strong point. If you have a deposit amount of between 5% and 20% and are wanting to get a home soon, you may be required to pay Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI)

The purpose of an LMI is to protect the lender against the event the borrower is unable to make loan repayments and therefore defaults on the loan. This will be a one-off payment the lender may ask you to pay.  

When the time comes to choosing a mortgage there is a good chance that you will need to decide been a fixed or variable home loan/mortgage. As it sounds, a fixed rate home loan is where the interest rate is fixed for a set period of time – often 1,3 or 5 years. Therefore, if interest rates rise, yours will remain the same. However, if they drop, yours will remain the same. 

A great benefit of fixing your interest rate is knowing what you are paying. This helps with budgeting for your repayments, upcoming expenditures and savings.

As for variable interest rates, once again, they are as they sound. As the rate is not fixed, it will rise and fall with the market, meaning your payments will vary over the term of your loan. When rates drop that means your payments drop as well, which is one of the main benefits behind variable rate loans. Others include:

  • Extra repayments at no extra cost
  • Have more features like unlimited redraws on additional repayments, or the ability to save on interest by setting up an offset account. 
  • Easier and cheaper to switch loans if you find a better deal elsewhere.

It’s an account that is linked to your home loan in a way that it reduces the amount of interest you have to pay. Simply put.

In essence, it’s a savings (offset) account linked to your home loan. For example, if you have a home loan balance of $200,000 and have $10,000 in your offset account, you’ll only pay interest on a home loan balance of $190,000. The more savings you have in your offset account, the more money that is paid off the interest of your loan.

Generally, this will be determined by your financial institution, based on the requirements of your loan approval process. For most loans, settlement can take 14-21 days for unconditional financial approval. If you have someone going guarantor, or buying through a trust, you will find this can add days or even weeks to the settlement period. 

Property settlement is a legal process that is facilitated by your legal and financial representatives, as well as those of the seller. This is when ownership passes from the seller to the buyer, and the balance of the sale price is paid. The seller will set the settlement date (settlement day) in the contract of sale. Generally, the settlement process can take 30 to 90 days, but can be longer or shorter depending on the situation. 

To determine if a longer settlement is required, it’s best to speak to your solicitor or conveyancer, who will be able to advise or negotiate on your behalf.

Getting a pre-approval is a very valuable thing to have done before applying for a home loan. Why? Because when you get a pre-approval, the lender will check your credit history and have verified your documentation to approve a specific loan amount. 

Knowing the amount you are able to borrow gives you more confidence when house hunting, because having an understanding of your financial limits will help refine your search, saving you time. Time will also be saved when you move on a property, as the pre-approval process has taken you further down the purchase path already. One of the greater benefits to a pre-approval is that it gives you greater appeal to sellers as it will confirm how serious you are about buying, and there is less chances of your offer being withdrawn due to a lack of financing.

They are a financial adviser specialising in helping people find a home loan. They will get to know you, your needs and your budget, then start researching the right type of loan that will benefit you. Once that has been done, you can have them stay on to help manage and facilitate the application process.