Readers of the Astonisher may not always understand the twisted logic of it’s editorial staff and can, have been and are sometimes left scratching their heads as to W.T.F is going on.
We recently received, from the State Revenue Office, a cheque for $10,000. After dancing around the banking chamber to deposit my windfall it struck me as to the unfairness of the entire scheme, my anger being increased when reading that most of the money goes to the builders and developers and not to those who should receive the grant.
I bought a second-hand house for $35,000 and had it relocated on to my block. For that I received $10,000 back from the First Home Owners Grant. At the very least I thought I would get a pro-rata amount and would have been happy with half that amount, but no, the grant was the same whether your house cost you $50,000 or $500,000. Almost a third of what I paid for the building?
How this works is beyond comprehension. I buy a house already built and move it. Then to me that is a second-hand house. Fortunately I knew a change in the scheme was coming so thought I was being clever by having the contracts suitably dated so a second-hand dwelling was still eligible for a grant. But, dear folks, a second-hand house moved on to a block is a NEW house. It was not even the first house as I already occupied a dwelling on this same block this was, to my mind, a second-second hand house but it still qualified as a NEW build. Apparently as this was the first grant I had applied for, even though technically I was already a home owner, it was still a NEW home on a NEW block from a NEW owner. This does not compute.
Now at 70+ and on the downward slide to a hole in the ground I could well afford not to be given such an indulgence from the state especially when the very people who need it, young first home owners do not qualify for this largesse unless it is on a new build on a new block and they have never owned a place before. How many young people, couples, newlyweds and young parents would be better off under the old scheme where it was for any new ownership, but no it has to be a new construction, so the idea of young people buying a cheap pre-owned house and working their way up the real estate ladder is just not an option. It’s new houses or nothing.
That’s what makes me angry, an old can’t like me gets the money, a young person starting out doesn’t and who benefits but the developers, real estate agents, builders and investors in new houses and not the people it should go to - the young.
Now you know why builders offer generous Cash-back schemes, it’s not theirs, it’s yours, stolen from you by builders whose hands are polishing the balls of the politicians. They just bullshit you into thinking it’s a FREE bonus from a generous construction conglomerate.
Having said that despite my anger I’m not going to give it back.
