New 'most generous' Queensland $15,000 first-home buyers new home grant to begin tomorrow: Treasurer Tim Nicholls

The Queensland state government will scrap the $7,000 first-home owners' grant with immediate effect, with the new $15,000 handout for those building a new home to begin tomorrow.

Details of the new 'first home owner construction grant' were announced today by Treasurer Tim Nicholls delivering the first Liberal Queensland budget in 15 years.

The immediate introduction of the new $15,000 grant is designed to prevent an artificial lull in first-home buyer activity, as has happened in NSW, where the $15,000 handout will begin October 1. The existing $7,000 first-home owners' grant will remain in place in NSW until then.

Nicholls called the new grant the most generous first-home buyer handout in Australia.

Although he did not explain the claim, proportionally Queensland's is a more generous scheme than that in NSW, given median house and unit prices in Brisbane are $430,000 and $350,000, compared with $590,000 for a Sydney house and $470,000 for a Sydney unit.

Nicholls said the $7,000 first-home owners' grant – introduced in July 2000 – had “outlived its usefulness” and had just added $7,000 to the cost of a house.

“First-home buyers have been competing with each other, which just means higher prices,” he said.

Nicholls said the new $15,000 first-home buyer new home grant was based on discussion with many in the construction industry and many economists, who called for the $7,000 grant to be removed and replaced.

“We have listened and acted.”

However, he did not explain how the $15,000 handout would not add to the cost of a new house in the same way he claimed the $7,000 had pushed up existing house prices.