26000 fhb grant from vic govt

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The First Home Owners Boost - which puts up to $26,000 in home buyers? pockets depending on their circumstances - will also be extended until June 2012 at a cost of $95 million.

Struggling first home buyers will get a 20 per cent cut in stamp duty from July, with further cuts up to 50 per cent phased in by September 2014. In the first year, this will put $3,274 into the average buyer?s pocket spending $400,000 on a new home.

But the budget papers reveal stamp duty revenue will drop by 3.5 per cent next financial year to $3.7 billion, the result of fewer people buying homes in a sluggish property market.

Property taxes account for more than a third of Victoria?s tax income, contributing nearly $5.6 billion to the state?s coffers last financial year.

http://theage.domain.com.au/real-estate-news/homeowners-feel-sting-in-tail-of-baillieu-budget-20110504-1e8fc.html