Non-homeowner purchasing a home 108-04070040

A customer's first home will generally be their principal home. If the home is not the customer's principal place of residence, it will be assessed as an asset. The customer must uniquely identify the location of any real estate or business site they own or have an interest in.

Note: if the customer has received a payment made under the law of the Commonwealth or by a State or Territory to assist a person to build or purchase their own home, such as the first home buyers grant, this is exempt income.

For all new claims from 1 January 2007, the Assets Test assessment for the principal home and curtilage has been restricted to the customer's house and the adjacent land on the same title document. This is known as the single title rule. The term curtilage means the land surrounding the home. There are now two curtilage tests used to determine a customer's allowable house and curtilage concession, a 'private land use test' and an 'extended land use test'. A grandfathered savings provision for real estate will grandfather concessions for real estate for two groups of existing customers on payments prior to 1 January 2007, who would otherwise be disadvantaged by the application of the new one title rules.

This procedure does not cover house and curtilage assessments.