HomeBuilder starts get an extra 12 months

PEOPLE hoping their new home will be started fast enough to qualify for HomeBuilder can breathe easier, with the Coalition Government tripling the eligible period for construction.

Announced midway through last year in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the scheme provided $25,000 grants (later reduced to $15,000) to people constructing a new dwelling – including first home buyers – or carrying out major renovations on their existing home.

There have been 121,000 applications to HomeBuilder, with the cost of about $2.5 billion expected to support about $30 billion of residential construction projects.

Houses or renovations started between June 4 last year and March 31 this year were eligible for HomeBuilder, with construction originally required to start within three months, and later extended to six months.

As the end of the scheme approached, federal Labor and the building industry had urged the Coalition to increase this period to 12 months to give home buyers and builders enough time to get started.

On Saturday, Minister for Housing Michael Sukkar announced (alongside Treasurer Josh Frydenberg) the construction start requirement for HomeBuilder would be extended to 18 months, but gave nothing away during a visit to a new house being built in Charlemont two days earlier with Victorian Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson.

“We’re keeping a really close eye on the market and the feedback from builders – at the moment, builders are telling us it’s tight timeframes but they’re able to meet the commencement deadlines,” Mr Sukkar said, adding that the take-up of HomeBuilder was about five times what the Coalition expected.

The Coalition says the increase from six months to 18 months was in response to “unanticipated delays in the construction industry caused by COVID-19, related supply constraints including delays in global supply chains and recent natural disasters”.

Senator Henderson said HomeBuilder had been an “incredible success”.

“Let’s not forget we delivered this at a time where there was a great deal of uncertainty as to what the future held.”

Victorians make up nearly a third (29 per cent) of the HomeBuilder applications received from across Australia so far.

One couple taking full advantage of HomeBuilder is Bonnie Hinkley and Matthew Waters, who are building a four-bedroom home in Charlemont (not far from the site of Thursday’s media event) expected to be finished as soon as the end of this month.

The couple, who work as teachers in Torquay, said HomeBuilder allowed them to build their first home about a year earlier and also make it larger.

“The house we’ve built definitely wouldn’t have been able to be built unless we had the extra grant money,” Mr Waters said.

“With us both being from the country, it’s so easy from Charlemont to just get on the highway and head straight home, or the trains to Melbourne,” Ms Hinkley added.

“It’s such a beautiful area. We’re so close to the beach, so close to work – it couldn’t really be a greater spot.”