Renovated houses and the regional home building boost grant

Renovation eligibility

The home must:

• have been substantially renovated before you bought it
• not have been lived in since the renovation.

The seller must:

• be registered (or required to be registered) for the GST and sold the home in the course of their business
• give you a tax invoice that shows the GST component of the home purchase price (as evidence that the sale was a taxable supply)
• give you a statement
  Vendor statement

  Regional home building boost grant

  This is a statement from the seller that must show the name and title of the person authorised to sign it.

  If the vendor is a company or trust, the statement should be on their letterhead.

  For newly-built homes, it must state that the home has not been previously occupied or sold as a place of residence.

  For renovated homes, it must confirm:

  • the home has not been previously occupied or sold as a place of residence since the renovations
  • the type and extent of renovations
  • the sale of the home is a taxable supply under the GST Act and was in the course of the seller’s business.

  A vendor statement completed by a financial institution or any other party not mentioned above will not be accepted.

  that confirms the house had not been occupied or sold since the renovation.

You also need to meet the other eligibility criteria.

Substantial renovations

A substantial renovation is when all, or most, of the structural or non-structural components of a building are removed or replaced.

Most of the rooms in the building must have been affected, and the renovations must have affected the building as a whole for it to be considered a substantial renovation.

Non-substantial renovations

A home has not been substantially renovated if:

• only cosmetic work has been done to the home (e.g. painting)
• only one part of the building has been renovated (e.g. renovation of one bedroom in a 4-bedroom house; removal and replacement of a kitchen and bathroom with little else being done to the building, apart from minor repair work).

Examples

Relocated and renovated homes

Henry bought a relocatable house from a business specialising in restored Queenslanders. The business moved the house to the vacant land that Henry had bought the previous month. They installed the home and connected services.

If Henry met the other eligibility criteria, he could apply for the grant as an owner-builder.

Self-employed builders

Nick and Emma are self-employed builders and are registered for the GST. They bought a house and made substantial renovations before putting it on the market.

At the time of sale, they provided a statement as evidence of the taxable supply. The house would be eligible as a substantially renovated home because they sold it in the course of their business.