Changesto FirstHomeBuyers DutyExemption

The associated costs of purchasing a home go far beyond the marketing price listed on Domain. The final figure can be quite the shock, especially if embarking on the process for the first time.

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Or you can take your chances that the best pieces are still available and come along on Saturday, June 17, or Sunday, June 18, with the doors opening at 9.30am. Tickets are $10 per day or $15 for a twoday pass! Children under 12 are free.

The Zonta Club of Orange meets at 6.30pm on the first Tuesday of each month at the Orange RSL and welcomes guests and new members with open arms! Check them out on Facebook and Instagram.

One such cost is Transfer Duty (or Stamp Duty), which can be substantial, depending on the purchase price of the property. Revenue NSW currently provide a number of options for First Home Buyers to assist with alleviating Stamp Duty costs (First Home Buyer Assistance scheme), however these options are about to change (again) on 1 July 2023

Existing duty exemptions and concessions apply for first home buyers on property purchases up to $800,000. However, the brackets are set to expand. From 1 July 2023, the transfer duty exemption threshold will increase from $650,000.00 to $800,000.00 meaning that eligible First Home Buyers purchasing properties up to $800,000.00will be exempt from paying duty. The concession (discounted stamp duty) threshold will increase from $800,000.00 to $1 million.

Further changes relate to the period of time a First Home Buyer must live in the property following settlement, to be eligible for the First Home Buyer Assistance scheme. Prior to 1 July 2023, First Home Buyers have been required to live in the property for a continuous period of 6 months, within the first 12months of owning the property to fulfil theresidence requirements. For Contracts enteredinto after 1 July 2023, Purchasers will be required to move into the home within 12 months of settlement, and live in the property for a continuous period of 12 months to satisfy the conditions of eligibility.

Since November 2022, eligible first home buyers have also had the option to ‘opt-in’ to the property tax system (lesser annual property tax payments) as opposed to an upfront transfer duty payment. However, from 1 July 2023, this option will be made redundant. Any first home buyers who have, or expect to, exchange Contracts prior to 1 July 2023 and have ‘opted in’ will continue to pay property tax for the duration of their ownership of the property. For anyone exchanging on a Contract on or after 1 July 2023, this option will no longer be available.

In the event you believe you are eligible for the scheme, but are purchasing with others who are not eligible (not applicable to spouses or de facto partners), you are not precluded from applying for the assistance scheme if you are purchasing at least 50% of the property.

In the event you are purchasing your first home, or planning to in the future, it is important to seek independent advice to determine your eligibility for first home buyers Revenue assistance and which options are appropriate for your circumstances in this regard.

**We note this article focuses primarily on First Home Buyer Stamp Duty Exemption changes and is not a comprehensive analysis of all the various applicable costs of buying a first home.

Thisarticledoesnotconstitutelegaladviceandprovidesgeneralinformationonly.

Anthony Short

Bridget O'Kane

60HillStreetOrange|POBox26|0263939200|bsl.reception@blackwellshort.com.au|www.blackwellshort.com.au

It went on to say that, “the fiercest tornado ever known swept across a narrow area near the town doing damage estimated at many thousands of pounds. Many buildings including homesteads were unroofed and some wrecked. Big trees including some more than two-feet thick were uprooted and haystacks and sheds demolished.”

Sixty-four years later, the reporting was closer to home, when, on November 9, 2005, the front page of the “Central Western Daily” featured the headline:

MESS LEFT BY RAGING TORNADO.”

“A tornado bore down on a small farming community south of Orange on Tuesday night, destroying sheds and lifting the roof off one house and uprooting trees.”

With warnings of global warming and forecasts of cataclysmic weather happenings ringing in our ears, the Oral History group searched its collective memory to uncover their own experiences of tornadoes and other natural disasters. And there were many to remember!

“Twisters go back a long way,” Jeff told us. “I remember one that came along the Four Mile Creek and through the State Forest about 14 or 15 Ks out of town. It raced through a 20-year-old forest and twisted off every tree, leaving just two standing. There must have been thousands – all wiped out.”

Gillian and Peter narrowly missed being hit.

“We had gone on a family picnic when

Peter heard the sound of the wind coming in the distance and quickly moved us to a clearing. We could hear the savagery of it as it swept down a narrow strip just near us!” said Gillian.

Owen was also a witness to the ferocity of nature. “We had a property out of Dubbo with a large lucerne flat. A mini tornado came through a strip about 200 meters wide, twisted off the irrigation system and dumped it in the river!”

But Mother Nature had more in store.

On January 22, 1986, the Weather Bureau announced:

“A severe hailstorm caused extensive damage to homes and vehicles in the Orange area. Over 100 motor vehicles damaged. Hail up to seven cm size reported.”

Many people remembered the eerie green light which preceded it and the far-off rumbling sound – like a train in the distance –as it approached.

“There was enormous damage to cars,” one member told me. “At the height of the storm, people were trying to park their vehicles under the Kmart-covered car park, but it was full and there was a queue of cars with passengers, waiting outside, being pelted by the huge hailstones.”

The bill for damage came to 41 million dollars.

“In 1950, record rainfall occurred over twothirds of NSW and most remarkably over the central inland. The annual rainfall is as much as 250mm higher than the second-wettest year in 130 years of record keeping,” it has been reported.

The Oral History group agreed wholeheartedly. Kerry and Joe were in Kempsey at different times during that period and could vouch for the fact that it was indeed very wet!

Joe had gone with his father to visit his grandparents and remembers sitting up all night on a chair with the flood waters up to his knees. The next morning he saw out the window that his grandfather’s new house, which had just been completed next door, had been washed to the other side of the road.

Tom was working on the railway at Dubbo in 1955 and, as he looked towards the Macquarie River, “I saw a wall of water rushing down the railway line towards us. The whole of South Dubbo was flooded.”

Mick lived in Orange at that time. “There was quite a bit of flooding in Orange, too, in the 1950s,” he remembered. “Water used to come across the railway line into Hang Sing’s premises and covered MacLachlan St.” Hang Sing & Co were fruiterers on Summer St just east of the rail tracks.

Tom always has a good railway story to tell. “In the Yarrabandai flood, the new Indian Pacific train reached Parkes and could go no further. We decided to send it to Forbes via Cootamundra and on to Broken Hill. It had just left Parkes when BANG! The line sank under the train near Tichborne and the ‘glamour’ train was left sinking into the ground and stayed there for three days.”

Max was, as usual, there to lend a hand in his aircraft. “I was dropping fodder to starving sheep stranded on little islands. In Walgett in 1955, the levy banks were in danger of breaking.

Dubbo got in touch about 10pm and asked if someone could fly the radio system to Walgett, as all their telephones were down. We did, although I had to be back by daylight to continue dropping supplies onto the roofs of houses. We had a lot of fun because we had to get the speed back and drop it at just the right time.”

The Oral History group also had a lot of fun delving into their store of memories.

Copyright Helen McAnulty 2023

MINISTER VISITS TAFE & CSU

It was great to host a visit last week by Tim Crakanthorp, MP, (Minister for Skills), TAFE and Tertiary Education to all three TAFE campuses where he engaged with students and teachers adopting a hands on approach. He drove an excavator at one site and showed he was a dab hand in the kitchen in the hospitality section. We toured the CSU campus checking out the current cohort of dentistry students using some amazing technology in their degree studies. I was very impressed with the enthusiasm of the Minister in his inaugural visit to Orange.