The $25,000 Homebuilder Grant offered by the Australian Federal Government so that licensed builders and contractors will not be lacking of projects to make them get through the expected dark period in the second half of 2020, looks so noble on the surface.
It’s just that some of the guidelines needed for the approximately 27,000 homeowners (and their hired builders) to avail of the grant assume that they have some savings kept in the bank before the pandemic even occurred.
One such questionable guideline is that $150,000 to $750,000 of the homeowners’ money should have been ploughed in already into the renovation before the $25,000 grant could be approved to the hired contractor.
And this seems like from that first guideline alone, the grant will only benefit middle class to upper class homeowners, and not the more shelter needy lower classes.
While the Homebuilder Grant has a decent mission to keep the residential contractors’ industry busy during the Covid 19 Dark Ages, it surely will make many folks with already an ample financial liquidity doubly happy especially if they already have a big project lined up.
These are the other eligibility requirements :
- You should be an adult Australian citizen with an income less than $125,000 a year. If you are living with a partner, your combined income should be less than $200,000 a year.Before the end of 2020, you should have entered into a contract to build or renovate your main place of residence. And within 3 months, the construction or renovation should start. It should be noted that investment properties other than your primary residence is not qualified for this grant.
- The renovation should not be used for expansion of the property like construction of swimming pools, tennis courts and sheds. Rather, the renovation should improve the livability, safety and accessibility of the existing property. Home renovation like a kitchen renovation will do.
- The total value of new builds including the land, should be less than $750,000.
- And of course, the initial $150,000 to $750,000 requirement.
And there is a footnote below the guidelines that say, that you can’t just go up to a preferred licensed contractor and automatically let him do your project. Instead, you should put up your project for public bidding first to ensure that your home buildings costs are not bloated artificially to be able to add up to $25,000.
