Victorian Budget 2025 – Why First-Home Buyers Are Furious

If you’re trying to buy your first home in Victoria, the latest budget doesn’t just ignore you — it’s actively made things harder.

The Victorian Homebuyer Fund, which let buyers purchase with just a 5% deposit (with the Government kicking in up to 25%), is being axed from 30 June 2025. No more applications. No more help. Just gone.

This scheme helped more than 15,000 people buy a home. It wasn’t perfect, but it was working. And now, it’s gone with nothing proper to replace it.

The Government says the Federal Help to Buy program will take over, but it’s not even running yet and will only support 10,000 people a year across the entire country. Victoria alone will burn through that quickly. So it’s a bit of a hollow promise.

Stamp Duty Concessions? Still Stuck in 2017

The stamp duty rules haven’t been touched. If you're buying under $600,000, you get an exemption. Up to $750,000, there’s a sliding discount.

Sounds great — until you look at today’s prices. Most homes in Melbourne are now well over those limits. And with the median price expected to hit $1 million by mid-2025, these “concessions” don’t help real buyers anymore.

More Spin, Less Help

Once again, we’ve seen a scheme get scrapped with no real replacement, dressed up as part of a bigger plan. But it’s not a plan — it’s a cut. And the people who are trying to get into the market are the ones wearing it.

The Real Estate Institute of Victoria’s called it a “chokehold” on the property market. And it’s hard to argue with that. Between this, the rising levies, the short-stay tax, and all the added red tape, it feels like property buyers are being pushed to the limit while the Government keeps dipping into their pockets.

So, What Now?

With fewer support programs and no stamp duty update in sight, first-home buyers are left with less than ever before. If you’re trying to get into the market, you’ll need to plan even more carefully — and we can help with that.

As always, if you’ve got questions about what this means for your situation, we’re here to talk.