New renovations grant for home owners

Home owners renovating their houses are in for a cash splash by the Federal Government with a new home renovations grant set to launch in a bid to prevent the construction industry flatlining. Here’s how much you’ll have to spend to qualify.

HOME improvements will have to be worth about $100,000 or more for mum-and-dad renovators to access a Federal Government co-contributions, under to stimulus scheme to get hammers swinging and keep tradies employed.

It will be on top of a Federal plan to turbocharge the construction industry by topping up the existing first homebuyers scheme with up to an additional $25,000, which is expected to be opened up to all new home builders.

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It would see up to $40,000 on the table for new homes to be built, in a bid to jolt people out of the economic malaise and prevent construction and tradies falling off a fiscal cliff fast approaching in September.

Home renovations would have to be worth $100,000 or more to access a Federal Government co-contribution scheme expected to be announced this week. Picture: Brett Wortman

The announcement is expected later this week, with specific details like the exact amount of cash, thresholds and means testing to be finalised, but it will be worth close to $1 billion.

The State Government would be required to come on board for it to work, administering the scheme through its existing $15,000 First Home Owners grant.

There will be a $100,000 minimum threshold for people to access the renovations grant, which will be run as a co-contribution.

For every dollar the eligible renovator spends, the government will tip in a certain amount.

The high threshold is intended to ensure only larger scale renovations are done, weeding out dodgy contractors setting up over night and ensuring the work goes to properly trained tradies to avoid another “pink batts” scandal.

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said the Federal Government had “yet to share details” of its construction industry support plan with him.

“Queensland already has one of the most generous First Home Owners’ Grant schemes in the country, which offers $15,000 for Queenslanders buying their first home,” Mr Dick said.

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick says he has not yet been provided with details of the Federal Government’s construction rescue plan. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

It is being welcomed by the construction industry who are quietly confident it will provide the shot in the arm needed to prevent tens of thousands of tradie jobs from going, as COVID-19 sees new building contracts drying up.

Master Builders Queensland boss Grant Galvin said if the scheme proceeded like this, with the State and Federal Government’s combining resources, it would save jobs.

“This total of $40,000 for new homes will save the industry from falling off a cliff as of August,” he said.

Up to 100,000 Queensland tradies are at risk of losing their job from September, according to MBQ analysis, as the COVID-19 lockdown impact on drying up contracts starts to flow through.

It was also revealed in a Senate committee hearing yesterday that there are more than 1.64 million Australians on the JobSeeker payment now, double the number of people on unemployment benefits at the start of March.

The renovation and home builder scheme has been developed in close consultation between Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Housing Minister Michael Sukkar and the Prime Minister.

It is understood that at a hook up of state and Federal Treasurers on Friday the scheme was discussed and it was put that while they had put the economy into hibernation and they needed to work together to pull it back out.

Originally published as New renovations grant for home owners