Less than a month remains for Queensland's underused Building Boost scheme
Less than a month remains for Queenslanders to take advantage of the state government’s $10,000 handout for those buying or building a new home.
Home buyers and investors wanting to take advantage of the incentive need to have entered into a contract to purchase or build a new home by January 31 – although they have until May 31 to submit their application to the Queensland Office of State Revenue.
The Building Boost was launched by the Queensland government on August 1 with the aim of the “igniting” new home construction in the state following the January 2010 floods but has to date failed to generate much momentum, with less than 10% of the $140 million allocated to the scheme taken up by buyers.
At the start of December, Stockland CEO Matthew Quinn highlighted the poor take-up of the grant, with just 1,200 applications lodged, equating to $12 million in handouts.
However, Stockland Residential CEO Mark Hunter says the Building Boost is driving enquiries “if you have right product”. The boost helped push up new home sales by 16% in the first two months of the scheme (August and September), albeit off a low base.
Stockland has heavily promoted the Building Boost in its new community developments in
A spokesperson for the company told Property Observer: “Queenslanders needed this boost and they need it extended. It is getting people into homes faster and creating construction jobs across the state. We’ve responded with some great offers like those at
“Like many others in the industry, we’re urging the Queensland Treasurer to consider an extension beyond January 31.”
However with no indication that the scheme will be extended, Master Builders Australia is urging buyers to act soon to take advantage of the $10,00o incentive.
“To get to a stage where a firm price contract can be prepared, there is a lot that has to happen, and this process can take a number of weeks,” says Master Builders executive director Graham Cuthbert.
Cuthbert says home buyers should have been talking to builders before Christmas.
“To date, the boost has not had a significant impact on the building industry and, while there are several issues at play, we believe many people are leaving things to the new year, with the mistaken belief that starting the process early in January will give them time to get a contract signed by the deadline,” he says.
“Consumer confidence is certainly another issue that is impacting the number of applications for the boost, and we have recently learnt of an emerging problem that is seeing low valuations causing some new home contracts to crash,” he says.
According to official ABS figures for October, the sunshine state recorded a 19.5% drop in building approvals for the month, leading a 10.7% nationwide slump.
The state recorded a strong improvement in building approvals in the first month of scheme with the total number of dwelling unit approvals rising from 1,900 in July to more than 2,800 in August. However these numbers slumped to just under 2,300 in September and to just over 1,800 in October due to a combination of high interest rates and poor consumer confidence.
Putting those figures into perspective, dwelling finance approvals just for first-home buyers in