Program guidelines

The First Peoples Home Ownership Program (the Program) is administered by the Victorian Government through Homes Victoria and is funded under Homes Victoria’s Big Housing Build (BHB) and is aligned with Strategic Goal 3: 'Opening doors to home ownership and private rental’ of Mana-na woorn-tyeen maar-takoort: ‘Every Aboriginal Victorian has a home’, the Victorian Aboriginal Housing and Homelessness Framework (VAHHF). 

The BHB is a landmark investment of more than $6.3 billion that aims to build 13,300 new homes across metropolitan and regional Victoria, including 9,300 new social housing homes and supporting jobs and boosting Victoria’s economy. Learn more about the Big Housing Build.

As part of this initiative, the Victorian Government has committed $20 million over 2 years to fund the Program, which will enable more First Peoples to realise home ownership in Victoria. This program will provide financial uplift to prospective First Peoples homebuyers and provide them with one-off grants to improve their ability to purchase a home.

These guidelines should be read in full before applying for the Program. They contain information about the Program and explain how it will work, including:

• the grant funding value
• eligibility and application criteria
• how to apply
• payment process
• privacy statement

Program objectives

The objectives of the program are to: 

• Deliver a grant program to support First Peoples home ownership.
• Ensure place based and people led support, and solutions underpin program delivery through partnerships with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) Home ownership Officers who can provide practical support to applicants.

Grant amount

Under the Program, participants are eligible for the following grant contributions:

• The Home Buyer Booster – $2,500 to contribute towards legal and administrative costs, subject to the terms and conditions set out in the Program Deed with Homes Victoria.
• Land transfer (stamp) duty helper – a matching contribution up to $10,000 of land transfer duty cost incurred through the transfer of land into the person's name. The grant amount will be determined based on the actual land transfer duty payable, up to a maximum of $10,000.
• Deposit contribution – for every dollar contributed towards the home buyer’s deposit, we’ll match it up to a maximum of $20,000.
• New builds: applicants building or buying a newly constructed home, you can receive a one-off additional $5,000 on top of the deposit contribution.