Repair or retrofit your home
The Resilient Retrofit program provides funding to repair (enhance resilience) or retrofit homes to:
- incorporate flood resilient design and materials in liveable rooms or areas
- raise or relocate services essential to the continued liveability of the home.
IMPORTANT: Registrations of interest for the Resilient Homes Fund have closed, but existing participants can still apply for funding. You can apply for funding of up to $50,000 to repair or retrofit your home.
Repair or retrofit examples
Some ways to increase your home’s flooding resilience include:
- Replace floor coverings to an approved water-resistant floor finish (e.g. vinyl, tiles, polished concrete).
- Improve electrical works (e.g. dedicated circuits with lock out breakers between levels and raising power outlets, switchboards, air conditioning units and hot water systems above recognised flood levels).
- Replace wall linings, cabinetry and mouldings with water resistant versions.
- Replace hollow core doors with solid core doors.
- Replace cavity sliding doors with face-of-wall sliding doors or swing doors and seal wall cavity.
- Eliminate cavities under or within staircases.
- Replace cavity walls with non-cavity walls.
A list of resilient retrofit materials covered under the program is in the Design guidance for flood resilient homes .
Making other types of repairs
If you are renovating your home outside the program guidelines, you’ll need to cover those expenses. This includes paying for any building materials and products that might be ineligible under the program.
If you want to make other improvements at the same time as your retrofit works, ask your licensed contractor to separate these out in the quote. This will make the review and assessment process more efficient when you submit your funding application via QRIDA.
Available funding
You can apply for funding of up to $50,000 to repair or retrofit your home. Funding is available for Resilient Retrofit strategies included in your Home Assessment Report.
For example: Shane’s recently renovated 4-bedroom home was inundated with 0.5 metre of water through all liveable areas. Shane has private home insurance with flood cover.
Shane’s Home Assessment Report identifies several resilience strategies (in addition to the $60,000 repair his insurance will cover). The Resilience Retrofit works are estimated to cost $10,000.
Shane can apply for $10,000 funding through the Resilient Homes Fund.
The Fund will only pay for works that are not covered by another grant or insurance. Learn more about how other grants and insurance affect your eligibility.
Co-contributions
In addition to the base funding of $50,000, eligible homeowners may also receive an additional dollar-for-dollar co-contribution from the Fund.
So, if a homeowner is quoted $70,000 to repair their home, an approved applicant would receive:
- the base funding of $50,000, and
- further $10,000 co-contribution from the fund.
The homeowner would be required to contribute $10,000. Homeowners experiencing genuine hardship (determined by the government) may be able to have their co-contribution waived.
For example: Thao’s 2-storey duplex was inundated with 1 metre of water through all liveable areas on the ground floor.
Thao’s Home Assessment Report identifies ResilientRetrofit options for the ground floor which includes the kitchen, bathroom and a bedroom. Thao sources quotes from licensed contractors. Resilient Retrofit works are estimated to cost $60,000. Thao isn’t insured and wasn’t eligible for a Structural Assistance Grant. Thao, with a contribution of $5,000 of her own funds, can apply for $55,000 from the Resilient Homes Fund.
Expansion to the repair or retrofit programs
Program options have been expanded so that eligible homeowners can apply for up to $50,000 through the Home Raise program to demolish and relocate or raise a non-habitable area (e.g. storage room) of their home.
No co-contributions are available for this work.
How this may affect you
If you have received a Home Assessment Report recommending Resilient Retrofit strategies, you may be able to instead apply for up to $50,000 to either raise, or demolish and relocate or rebuild your non-habitable area, where practical. The funding is capped at $50,000.
You can still only apply for one program, so we recommend you phone 13 QGOV (13 74 68) to schedule a one-on-one phone or Microsoft Teams appointment with a Resilient Homes Fund team member who can guide you through your options and confirm your eligibility.
If you have already started your resilience works funded by the Resilient Homes Fund, or completed your works you are not able to apply for additional funding to raise your home or relocate an area of your home, however you may be able to complete additional works. Refer to the completions page to learn more.
Next steps
- I need more help to understand my options
- Appealing the outcome of your Home Assessment Report