Queensland Parliament passed housing-related tax reforms on Tuesday (13 October), including changes designed to stop an existing shed disqualifying eligible first-home buyers from a vacant-land concession. The government's passage announcement also outlined relief for buyers of newly constructed homes transferred between developers and builders.
The Home Ownership and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 has passed Parliament. Its explanatory notes specify that the expanded vacant-land concession commences on assent and applies to transactions entered into from that date, rather than automatically covering earlier purchases.
Under the existing definition described in the notes, land needed to have no building or part of a building when acquired to qualify as vacant land. The reform broadens that definition to cover certain existing structures, including non-habitable sheds, while retaining the concession's other eligibility requirements.
Buyers must still build a separate new home and occupy that residence to satisfy the relevant requirements. Renovating or living in an existing structure does not satisfy that condition. The package also includes an anti-avoidance provision aimed at arrangements that artificially defer a transaction to gain access to the changed rules.
New Homes and Shared Equity
A separate change addresses builders' terms arrangements, where a builder buys land from a developer but constructs a home before settling the land purchase. The explanatory notes say the later transfer of the completed dwelling could count as an earlier sale of the home, affecting a subsequent buyer's access to first-home assistance.
The bill text allows a home sold only under specified builders' terms arrangements to retain new-home status. The amendments align treatment for the First Home Owner Grant and first-home new-home transfer duty relief, providing certainty for eligible buyers purchasing those dwellings.
The legislation also clarifies tax and grant treatment for participants in Queensland's Boost to Buy and the Commonwealth's Help to Buy shared-equity programmes. Subject to the relevant conditions, participants can access home duty concessions, the grant and land tax home exemptions in the same way as other eligible buyers. The bill also removes transfer duty on specified later acquisitions of the government's interest.
Treasurer and Minister for Home Ownership David Janetzki said the reforms were intended to prevent buyers acting in good faith being denied a fair outcome because of a technicality. In its June scrutiny, the Governance, Energy and Finance Committee recommended passage and recorded the Australian Property Developers Association's support for removing unintended barriers and expanding the vacant-land definition.
The package also tightens the meaning of good reasons for varying or waiving the grant's residence requirements. The bill specifies that the reason must be outside the applicant's control and prevent compliance with the relevant requirement, retaining a discretion for those circumstances alongside the broader changes to concession access.