Buying your first home on the Gold Coast or in the Tweed

Buying your first home is a lot of new words at once, and most people only learn them as they go. This guide walks through the whole thing in order, from the first sums to the morning you pick up the keys.

There is one local wrinkle to deal with first. The Queensland and New South Wales border runs straight through this part of the coast. Coolangatta is in Queensland and Tweed Heads is in New South Wales, and you can walk from one to the other in a few minutes. The beach is the same. The contract, the duty, the grants and the protections are not.

So before anything else, get used to asking one question of every piece of advice you read, including this one: which state is that true in?

Step 1: Work out what you can really spend

Start with a conversation, not a listing. A mortgage broker or a lender can tell you what you could borrow and how long a pre-approval lasts. If you are not sure how to choose one, we wrote a list of questions to ask a mortgage broker.

Then work out your real budget, which is smaller than your borrowing limit plus your savings. Allow for:

• Your deposit
• Transfer duty (often called stamp duty), unless you qualify for relief
• Solicitor or conveyancer fees
• Building and pest inspections, and strata searches if you are buying a unit
• Lender costs, and lenders mortgage insurance if it applies
• Home and contents insurance from the day you need it
• Removalists, connections and the small things nobody budgets for

Also ask yourself what repayment you could live with comfortably, not just what the bank would approve. A number that only works if nothing ever goes wrong is not your number.

Step 2: See what help you qualify for

There are three layers of help, and they do not all work the same way. The rules change often, so we would rather point you to the people who publish them than quote figures here that may date.

The federal 5% Deposit Scheme

Under the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme, an eligible first home buyer can buy with a minimum 5% deposit (2% for single parents and legal guardians) without paying lenders mortgage insurance. You apply through a participating lender.

A few details are easy to miss:

• Once you are pre-approved, you have a limited window to find a home and sign a contract, so get your search moving before you apply.
• The scheme has property price caps set by state and region. At the time of writing, the cap on the Tweed side of the border is higher than the cap on the Gold Coast side, so the same budget can sit inside the scheme in one state and outside it in the other.
• The purchase price and the value your lender assesses both have to be at or under the cap.
• Caps are checked by postcode, and some suburbs span more than one. Check the actual address.
• You need to keep living in the home as an owner-occupier. If you stop, the guarantee may no longer apply and costs can follow.

If you are buying in Queensland

The Queensland Revenue Office runs a first home concession on established homes, which depends on the value of the home, and a separate first home (new home) concession on new homes. There is also a first home vacant land concession.

The first home owner grant is for new homes only, with a value cap. There is no grant for established homes.

Each comes with conditions about moving in, and about what you can do with the home before and after you do. Queensland also changed who is eligible for home concessions from 1 August 2026, so if you or a co-buyer are a temporary resident, read that page before you budget.

If you are buying in New South Wales

Revenue NSW runs the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme, which offers a transfer duty exemption or concession on new and existing homes and vacant land, depending on the value. There is a separate First Home Owner (New Homes) Grant for new homes only, with its own value caps.

Again, there are rules about when you move in and how long you stay.

A note on local prices

Many established homes in this region sell above the thresholds where duty relief is at its most generous. That does not mean you will miss out, particularly if you are looking at units, smaller homes or new builds. It does mean you should check before you assume, and put the real duty figure in your budget. Both states publish calculators.

Step 3: Write a brief

A brief is a short description of what you are buying and why. It sounds formal, but it can fit on one page:

• Your budget, including what you would rather not spend
• The areas you are considering
• The things you will not compromise on, and the things you would give up for the right home
• How long you plan to stay
• Your timing

Think about how you actually live. Where you work, how you get there, where you would like to have a coffee on Sunday, whether you want a yard or would rather never mow one. If schools are part of the picture, look up catchments for the address, because Queensland and New South Wales run different school systems with different senior certificates.

Step 4: Line up your team before you find the home

You will need a solicitor or conveyancer who works in the state you are buying in. If you are looking on both sides of the border, ask early whether they can act on both, or find one for each.

Have them ready, along with your broker and a building and pest inspector. Good homes do not wait while you ask around for recommendations.

Step 5: Learn the area, then the street

Inspect more homes than you think you need to, including ones you would never buy. You are training your eye, and learning what things really sell for rather than what they are advertised for.

Keep notes on comparable sales. A suburb median can tell you roughly where a suburb sits, but in small coastal pockets a few sales can move it a long way. What you want is what similar homes on similar streets have sold for recently.

Go back to the home you like at a different time. Try a weekday morning, or when it is raining. Check the traffic, listen for aircraft, look at where the water sits, and say hello to a neighbour.

Step 6: Do your homework before you commit

This part matters more here than in most places, because flooding, aircraft noise, bushfire mapping, coastal rules and body corporate costs can all vary from one street to the next.

We have a separate piece on what to check before you make an offer, so we will keep this short. Before you are locked in, you want a building and pest report, a look at the title and anything registered against it, the flood and planning position for that specific lot, and a real insurance quote. If it is a unit, you also want the body corporate or strata records.

Step 7: Make an offer

Here is where the two states start to feel different.

In Queensland

The seller must give you a seller disclosure statement and prescribed certificates before you sign. That is helpful, but it has limits. It does not have to cover things like flood history or whether the building is structurally sound, so it does not replace your own checks.

Queensland contracts commonly include conditions for finance and for building and pest, which give you a set time to satisfy them. Ask your solicitor to look at those dates before you sign, and make sure they are realistic for your lender.

In New South Wales

The seller's contract has to come with a set of prescribed documents, including a planning certificate. Your solicitor or conveyancer should review it before you exchange. It is common for finance and inspections to be sorted before exchange or during the cooling-off period, rather than being written in as conditions, so ask how they would like to approach it.

Cooling-off in both states

Both states generally give you a short cooling-off period on a private sale, and in both you pay a small percentage of the price if you use it. The way it starts and the way it can be waived are different, so read the Queensland rules or the New South Wales rules for the state you are buying in.

Be careful if anyone asks you to waive or shorten it. It can be a fair thing to do to win a home, but only once you understand what you are giving up, and only after advice.

Step 8: If it goes to auction

There is no cooling-off at auction in either state, and you generally buy without conditions. That means your finance and your homework have to be finished before the day. In Queensland, this can also apply to a private contract signed shortly after an auction that did not sell. Read our guide on how to bid at auction before you register.

Step 9: From contract to keys

Once you are under contract, things move quickly:

• Pay your deposit by the date in the contract.
• Give your lender and broker what they ask for, promptly. They will usually arrange a valuation.
• Ask your solicitor when the home becomes your risk to insure. The answer depends on the contract, and it can be earlier than settlement, so do not leave it until moving day.
• Apply for any grant or concession at the right time. Your solicitor or conveyancer can tell you what they will lodge, and what is up to you.
• Do a final inspection shortly before settlement, to check the home is in the condition you agreed to buy it in.
• If there is a pool in Queensland, check whether there is a current pool safety certificate. If not, there is a deadline to get one after settlement.

Then your solicitor and lender settle, the agent releases the keys, and the home is yours.

A few things we tell every first home buyer

Set your walk away number in writing, and before you are emotional. Agree it with whoever you are buying with. It is much easier to stick to a number you wrote down on a calm Tuesday.

Losing a home is not a disaster. Nearly everyone misses out on one they loved. Paying too much, or buying something with a problem you did not check, lasts a lot longer than the disappointment.

Your first home does not have to be your forever home. It has to be somewhere you can afford, are happy to live, and could sell or rent to someone else one day.

Ask the silly question. Everyone in this process does it for a living except you. Nobody good will mind.

If you would like someone in your corner while you work through this, we would be glad to talk it through. A first call takes thirty minutes with no obligation, and you will leave knowing what your budget really buys. Buying from interstate? Our interstate guide is a good place to start.