New home sales and inquiries skyrocket in ACT as buyers jump on HomeBuilder scheme

A week after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the HomeBuilder package worth around $680 million, developers and land sale agents saw inquiries and sales skyrocket as buyers pounced on the new $25,000 grant.

Minister for Housing and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said as of noon on Tuesday, the HomeBuilder website had recorded 188,000 visits and more than 13,800 Australians had registered their interest in the grant.

According to data supplied to Domain, of those registered, 280 were from the ACT. 

“HomeBuilder has been designed to achieve specifically what the residential construction sector asked from us, and that is to avoid the construction pipeline from running dry in the second half of this year,” Mr Sukkar said.

“It is designed to drive demand today from Australians who are looking to build a new home, or to undertake a major rebuild of their existing home, but withdrew from the market when COVID-19 hit in March.”

Ginninderry project director Stephen Harding said the company had seen a noticeable spike in open home inspections and inquiries for house-and-land packages over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.

Mr Harding said 15 groups came through its land sales office on Friday, a day after the announcement was made, when typically there would be only two to three groups on a weekday.

“Over the long weekend, we had a further 50 groups visit the land sales office while our Flexi-living GX Display Village home had 87 groups visit over the course of the four-day period,” Mr Harding said.

“This level of visitation and inquiry is partly a result of easing COVID-19 restrictions but [is also] driven off the back of both the Commonwealth government’s HomeBuilder Initiative and the territory government’s waiver of stamp duty fees for single residential blocks.” 

The level of visitation and inquiries following the HomeBuilder announcement exceeded what Ginnindery was experiencing pre-coronavirus pandemic, Mr Harding added.

“This momentum is a positive sign for the effectiveness of these additional measures to support the industry,” he said.

The HomeBuilder package gives owner-occupiers a $25,000 grant to build a new home or substantially renovate an existing home.

To be eligible for the package, individuals must earn less than $125,000 or a combined income of up to $200,000 for couples. A national dwelling price cap of $750,000 will apply for new home builds.

Canberra residents Kiaya White-Debnam and Robbie Duldulao purchased a house-and-land package in Strathnairn, the first suburb of Ginninderry – Canberra’s newest cross-border region – only two days after the package was introduced.

“We’d been saving to buy our first home for the past seven months but weren’t really looking at any properties in particular. We only started genuinely looking and inquiring about various homes in the past three weeks,” Ms White-Debnam said.

“We weren’t immediately aware of the HomeBuilder grant but a day after it was announced, we were setting our sights on one particular house and were told of the new package and that was the deciding factor for us.

“It definitely sped up our house hunting decision.”

Ms White-Debnam purchased a two-bedroom boutique townhouse for $468,000. 

As a first-home buyer in the ACT, Ms White-Debnam was also exempt from paying any stamp duty on a new build, existing property or vacant residential land.

“We wanted to get our foot in the property market and the grant made it possible. Eventually, we’d like to use it as an investment property but, for the meantime, this house ticked all the boxes for a first home,” Ms White-Debnam said.

Under the package, construction for a new home must begin within three months of the contract date to avoid a rise in house prices.

Construction for Ms White-Debnam’s home is expected to start in the next week.

James Carter of Carter and Co Projects said he had seen a substantial uptake in inquiries from those who were previously not in a position to purchase and those who were ready to purchase after months of house hunting.

“We were definitely dealing with a lot of people the past few months and, with the easing of restrictions and this grant, it has certainly assisted them in making a purchasing decision,” Mr Carter said.

“The spread of inquiry is great with first-home buyers and even people wanting to upsize … it’s great to see the uptake in the people taking advantage of the grants to stimulate our economy and even more so to see home ownership and the ‘Australian dream’ be in reach for some people that may not have been able to purchase a new home [because of the COVID-19 crisis].”