Is there an option to get the FHOG put into your bank account or is it mandatory the bank takes it and pays your first progress payment to your builder with it?

My understanding is that it is mandatory. Certainly, it was for us a year and a bit ago. For memory, we were fortunate, as with our own deposit + the FHOG, the bank ended up paying a % of the FHOG into our own account, after having firstly paying the 1st building installment.

The laws will vary from state to state, in Victoria it will go to the "authorised agent" and only after the slab is down.
If its not going to an authorised agent then it follows a slightly different process

Yes I am in Victoria. We go through a loan boker. Ive asked my loan broker twice through email this question and twice no response.

He didnt advise us at the begining that the bank would take the FHOG and use it to pay for the 1st progress payment so we didnt intend on doing it that way as we have already found a use for the FHOG to help finish off the house, decking ,air con etc...

so I hope there is a chance we get to keep this money for later on.

We are in Victoria and its all explained here.

http://www.sro.vic.gov.au/SRO/sronav.ns ... A1004420DC

We are using it as deposit for construction/ First progress payment. Arranged with bank and builder. Therefoer we can hold back some of our cash deposit till the end for these sorts of things.
Does that make sense?

We are in Victoria and our mortgage broker said if you do it through him/the bank it goes straight on the loan. We have chosen to lodge it ourselves, so we can get the money to spend on driveways etc. We have to wait until we have a certificate of occupancy to get it though!

I would recommend paying it towards your loan and saving for the drive-way
That way your mortgage is smaller and your paying less interest on it during the construction of the house.

Also check if your eligible for the principle place of residence concession from the SRO.

I'm in Victoria and got the FHOG when building my house recently, they just deposited it into my bank account at the direction of the bank's construction loan department. I had asked them to just use it in making the construction loan payments before starting to draw down on the loan but they told me it was my money so therefore it would be put in my account.

Our was organized through a mortgage broker and it went straight into our bank account at the start of the build. The bank then paid only something like 85% of each progress payment, and we paid the rest from our FHOG.

Hi there, I understand that you applied thru Broker.. But on the website of SRO, you must apply thru the financial instituation right? SO how did the broker do it?

The broker has to do it when you initially get the loan.. If not you apply for it afterward when you get the occupancy certificate. That's what we did. Got the forms off the internet and the people at the SRO are really helpful over the phone if we had questions (which we did about 5 times)!