The Queensland Government is continuing to court first home buyers with a promise to abolish stamp duty for land worth up to $250,000.

Currently first home buyers with vacant land valued at up to $150,000 are exempt from the transfer tax but that will be increased to $250,000 from July 1.

There will also be concession for land worth up to $400,000.

But the savings could be eaten up if home buyers are hit by another $5000 per lot by developers when the Government scraps infrastructure subsidies for them.

It is reported that the State Government looks set to scrap its infrastructure charges subsidy of 40 per cent for water and sewerage charges which would force developers to pass on the extra costs to home buyers.

The new stamp duty exemptions for first home buyers offer savings of:

* $1050 for land worth $175,000.

* $2675 for land worth $200,000.

* $4050 for land worth $225,000.

* $5675 for land worth $250,000.

The tax break comes on top of last year’s abolition of stamp duty for first home buyers purchasing established houses worth up to $500,000.

It also sits alongside federal first-home buyers’ grants which have helped prop up the property market.

But there are concerns the payments and tax breaks going to first-home buyers are stopping house prices falling to an acceptable level after years of inflation.

On the Gold Coast, houses and apartments stabilised in the March quarter for the first time in months, largely thanks to first-home buyers.

Meanwhile, in keeping with the State Budget’s ‘job-generating infrastructure’ theme, $1.4 billion was put aside for 4000 new public houses in the next three and a half years.

Treasurer Andrew Fraser said the Government was making the ‘largest injection into public housing in the state’s history’. He said Queensland was leading the way in its help to first-home buyers.

“Our reforms are directly aimed at stimulating the housing sector. And housing construction means jobs, apprenticeships and traineeships,” he said.