Buying land in QLD through HTB - our experience & tips

Hey all,

I wanted to provide info and a place to ask Qs, since there was barely any info when we went through the process and it was very stressful.

TIPS & INFO

1. You must submit a build contract at the same time as your land contract, in order to get finance for the land. This is because the bank and HA value the land and build together.

2. We did not know this going in and it was very stressful trying to get a build contract quickly so we didn't lose the land. We had to choose everything immediately without much consideration.

3. Therefore - decide on your builder and the type of home you want FIRST, all you really need to do is narrow down your fave options that fall in budget for the likely block widths and sizes of bkocks you can potentially afford.

4. Contract turnaround - before you even look at layouts, first check with builders how quickly they can get you a contract - some take months, a few have a fast track program that can get you a contract in a couple of weeks.

5. Land offer - since you will need to nail down the land contract before the builder can start your build contract, try to get longer finance and settlement terms on the land, or be prepared to ask for an extension.

6. Titled land only - through the scheme you can only really buy already titled land, which sucks because many land releases don't title for 6-9 months or more. We couldn't get a straight answer on this from HA.

7. Land heavy - be prepared to have to offer more for the land to secure it in this crazy market, depending on where you live. You may have to spend less on your build.

8. Conveyancer - PLEASE get a good conveyancer. Ours was terrible and it made the process so stressful and so much work.

9. Highly recommend emailing rather than calling HA, email team was very helpful

TIMELINE

5/12/25 - Applied for HTB at CBA. Not sure when our application actually got completed

30/12/25 - Received conditional approval for HTB

6/1/26 - Found and made offer on our land, wanted to do 21 days finance and 45 settlement per our lender, seller would only accept 14 days finance and 30 days settlement, lender said we should be able to make it work

8/1/26 - Offer accepted but lender told us we will need build contract before approval can even begin. Panic build research begins

9/1/26 - Met with builder and got process started for contract, made deposit - they said contract could be ready in 2 weeks

9/1/26 - Received land contract and sent to conveyancer to check

**somewhere in here we found out our site costs etc would be extra and had to completely pivot from a 2 storey to 1 storey home and decide on the layout in like 15 mins before work**

14/1/26 - Signed land contract (after holding off as long as possible to give us more time, but seller got antsy so we felt like we had to sign)

16/1/26 - Signed build quote to get contract process ready

20/1/26 - Asked for a 10 day extension from the seller of the land to account for the build contract, eventually he grudgingly accepted

**2 week deadline came and went, we didnt get our build contract for 3 weeks so now we are freaking out and chasing them daily**

30/1/26 - Received and signed our build contract, submitted it to lender

**Around this time we asked for another extension on the land and the agent said no and that the seller had higher unconditional offers waiting. So at this point if we don't get our finance by the finance date he can cancel and we could lose our deposit**

I basically chased everyone involved every day to get it over the line. It was one of the worst times of my life. CBA were asking questions that should have all been taken care of at preapproval!

In the end we got CBA final approval 1 HOUR BEFORE THE CUTOFF TIME ON THE FINANCE DATE!

9/2/26 - CBA final approval given. We had to hope like hell that HA would auto approve us because now we are unconditional. So again if it fell through we lose our deposit

11/2/26 - After a nail biting wait and lots of emails and calls explaining our situation, we received HA final approval email

*more annoying issues happened here as well*

18/2/26 - All parties ready to settle

20/2/26 - Settlement date - seller made a mistake but fortunately settlement still went through

Any more questions please ask! Happy to help.