Joanne

Oh God, Im confused! Hopefully heading for Torquay, Victoria and building our own house. Anyone got any ideas what we pay stamp duty on, is it just the land or the land and house?

Any ideas if Victoria are scrapping the mortgage stamp duty?

Can anyone clarify this FHOG and who its applicable to? Own home here in UK, but not in Oz. Do we still qualify for it?

My head is spinning now :scared:

Any help greatly appreciated!

Jo

MrsDagboy

Yeah - that I wouldn't touch Devine Homes with a 10 foot barge pole .

Joanne

Thats worth bearing in mind then!! Dare I ask why?

Jo

Muzza04

Here's 1 reason why:

"DEVINE HOMES" www.devine.com.au who are offering a good land + home package...... subsidised rent for the 6 mths of the build, susbsidised mortgae payment for the 1st year you are in the house & they pay your stamp duty!


too good to be true is the phrase.

Muzza04

Joanne,

You will be eligible for FHOG regardless of previous ownership of prop. in UK. So that is $7k straight up( well this in WA at the moment.)

As for Stamp duty.....not too sure but here in WA the award of FHOG is followed by an assessment for Stamp Duty. In our case we pay zilch ( no previous property to speak of)

If that helps. For more info...do a search on this site and various links to state websites and ATO will crop up.

ProofReader

I'd like to try to clarify a few issues here, if I may?

Stamp duty is levied against 'dutiable transactions', not houses or land or cars or anything like that. A 'dutiable transaction' is generally a legally binding deed or contract between two or more parties. For example, a contract to buy land, a contract to buy an existing house and land, a contract to build a house, a loan contract (mortgage, personal loan, hire purchase agreement, etc), a rental tenancy agreement, a lease, etc. Technically, if you write an I.O.U., date it and both parties - the person borrowing and the person lending the money - sign it, it is dutiable! The 'consideration', or price in the case of a house contract, loan amount in the case of a mortgage, is usually money but it doesn't have to be. 'Consideration' is anything of value and may be defined slightly differently under different legislation. For example, you could sign a contract to swap your house for a motor home - this would still attract stamp duty as the 'consideration' is something of value.

Stamp duty is levied on the contract/deed and, in certain circumstances like home owner or first home owner, there may be a 'discount' or reduction in the amount payable.

I'd highly recommend not using stamp duty calculators or other related information which you may find on a private company's website, but rather use the one for the Office of State Revenue for the state in which your transaction takes place. Search www.google.com.au for the relevant state government and follow the links or search the site for "stamp duty". The government has an obligation to give current and accurate information on their website; a private company does not and may be out of date.

The First Home Owners Grant has nothing to do with stamp duty. It is a federally funded scheme. It is available to permanent residents who have never owned a property in Australia before. As long as you have been granted your permanent resident's visa, you may be eligible to claim for it, subject to certain other criteria too. Again, I'd highly recommend getting the information relevant to your particular circumstances from the government site - www.firsthome.gov.au/

There are many variations which can affect both stamp duty and the FHOG, so it is far too complicated to go into here.

This is not legal advice and anyone with any queries should consult a legally qualified advisor.

I hope the little information I've given above will help to clarify at least some things!

floss

Fantastic information - thanks guys.... one little, lighthearted question - I went onto the First-time buyers website and checked our eligibility.... what is "a natural person".... I sometimes "feel like a natural woman" but don't suppose that counts?!

Joanne

Have just checked out the firsthome web site and yes we will qualify for FHOG. Not checked out the other one yet, but thanks for info.

Jo

Joanne

Cheers Muzza, yes your right, we do qualify for FHOG. Still trying to suss out which bit stamp duty payable on when building own house. Got few websites to check out.

Thanks again.

Jo

ProofReader

Quite a 'natural' question! Lawyers love jargon!

A 'natural person' is basically an adult human being for the purposes of this legislation, as opposed to a company or other 'corporate body'.

ProofReader

If you buy a block of land and build a house, you will pay stamp duty on the land contract and on the building contract, I'm afraid. Each contract (i.e. the one for buying the land and the one for building the house) is considered a dutiable transaction and will attract stamp duty. One exception to this is where you sign a house/land deal which is structured to be effectively the same as buying an existing house and land.

MrsDagboy

Hi Jo,

Many years ago, back in the late 80s & early 90s when the housing market here in Brisbane was quiet but at least stable, Devine Homes started advertising alot on tv. They offered no deposit, FHOG "back" for you to use as you wished, "low" interest rates & fixed repayments for the 1st year, rent subsidy etc. Thousands upon thousands of Qlders took up the offer & jumped at the chance of owning their own home. Everything was fine until interest rates started to rise - some people who were on the edge financially had to sell up & it soon became apparent that Devine homes had way overestimated the value of their homes when they were first sold so as to cover the costs of all the "free" extras they were offering. Interest rates sky rocketed & the housing market slumped badly making the problem worse. Houses that were valued far too high to start with had to be sold off for a pittance & owners were left with no house & still owing a great deal of money to the bank.

The only way Devine can give you all the extras like rent subsidy, stamp duty etc free is to add it on to the price of the house to start with. The scheme may seem ok in a bouyant housing market, but in a quiet one (or worse still a falling market) its a recipe for disaster.

As Muzza said before - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Joanne

Cheers, thanks for that. Muzza's quote of being to good to be true certainly sounds spot on, thats worth remembering.

Jo

ProofReader

Agreed! Before signing anything up with any builder/developer, I'd be researching them thoroughly as there have been so many bad deals. Google them to the enth degree, I say!

Bordy

If you buy land Jo you will pay stamp duty but not on a new house if you are building.
We paid 5k on a 90k bit of land 3 years ago & built our house on it, no stamp duty paid on a new house.