First home buyers in the ACT: grants, concessions and shared equity explained

Buying a first home in Canberra is a big step, and the rules around government help can feel like a maze. The good news is that the ACT offers some of the most generous first home buyer support in the country, sitting alongside national programs that any eligible Canberran can access. Here is a plain-English guide to how the main schemes work and where to find the official detail.

Stamp duty: the biggest single saving

Stamp duty, properly called conveyance duty, is the tax you pay when a property changes hands. On a typical Canberra home it can run to tens of thousands of dollars, so any relief here makes a real difference to what you need upfront.

For years the ACT has run the Home Buyer Concession Scheme, which reduces or removes duty for eligible buyers. The headline change is that, under the ACT Budget for 2026 to 2027, no first home buyer in the Territory will pay stamp duty from 1 July 2026, regardless of income or property value. The ACT Government has described this as making the Territory the first jurisdiction in Australia to abolish stamp duty for all first home buyers.

Before that change, the concession was capped and means tested. For purchases up to 30 June 2026, the scheme offered a maximum duty concession of $35,238 on properties valued at $1,020,000 or less, with income thresholds that scaled from $250,000 for buyers with no dependent children up to $273,000 for those with five or more children. If you are settling around the changeover, it is worth confirming with the ACT Revenue Office which rules apply to your exact transaction date.

Who counts as a first home buyer

Eligibility for ACT duty relief has generally rested on a few common conditions. You needed to be an individual aged 18 or over, rather than a company or trust. At least one buyer had to live in the home as their principal place of residence continuously for a minimum of one year. And buyers could not have owned or held an interest in any other property in Australia during the five years before the purchase. These principles have long shaped who the scheme is designed to help, so it is sensible to check the current criteria before you commit.

The national shared equity option: Help to Buy

Separate from the ACT schemes, the Australian Government runs a shared equity program called Help to Buy, which operates in the ACT alongside other states and territories. Under shared equity, the government takes an ownership share in your home in exchange for contributing to the purchase price, which lowers the amount you need to borrow.

Through Help to Buy, the government can contribute up to 40 per cent of the purchase price for a newly built home, or up to 30 per cent for an existing home. Buyers can enter with a deposit of as little as 2 per cent. To qualify, applicants generally need an annual taxable income at or below $100,000 for an individual, or $160,000 for joint applicants and single parents. You must be at least 18, an Australian citizen, and you cannot currently own other property here or overseas. The home must be your principal place of residence. Applications are made through participating lenders rather than directly to the government.

Stacking your support

One of the most useful things to understand is that these schemes are not always mutually exclusive. Stamp duty relief, deposit support and shared equity each address a different part of the cost of buying, so eligible buyers can often benefit from more than one. That said, some programs limit whether you can combine them, so the order in which you apply matters.

Where to get the official detail

Scheme thresholds, caps and eligibility rules are reviewed regularly, and the figures above can change at budget time. Before you make decisions, confirm the current settings with the source. The ACT Revenue Office publishes the authoritative detail on the Home Buyer Concession Scheme, and the Australian Government's first home buyer site covers Help to Buy and other national programs. This guide is general information, not personal financial advice, so it is wise to speak with a licensed broker, lender or financial adviser about your own circumstances.