Pathways to owning your home in your community

Owning a home in your community

You may be able to become a private home owner in your community by purchasing your social housing dwelling.

If you're living in social housing, you can apply to the trustee to get a lease and buy the house. The trustee will ask the Department of Housing and Public Works for approval to grant the lease and sell the dwelling. If approval is granted, you can then buy the house.

We are working with local councils, trustees and Traditional Owner groups to make home ownership available, achievable and sustainable in remote, discrete communities.

How you may become a home owner

You may be able to own a home by either:

• accepting your entitlement to a Land Holding Act (Katter) lease
• applying to the trustee to buy your social housing dwelling under a 99-year home ownership lease.

99-year home ownership lease

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in communities on Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT) land can apply for a 99-year home ownership lease.

This gives the leaseholder exclusive use of the land and any dwelling that exists on the land. The underlying ownership of the land remains held in trust by the trustee for the benefit of the community. The granting of a 99-year home ownership lease provides individual tenure, which enables the leaseholder to apply to borrow money to purchase an existing dwelling or to finance a new dwelling if the land is currently vacant.

Under the 99-year home ownership lease process, local trustees can agree a sale price with the Department of Housing and Public Works for the purchase of social housing within their respective community.

We have worked with these communities to develop and agree on sale prices:

• Yarrabah
• Palm Island
• Woorabinda
• Lockhart River
• Napranum
• Mapoon
• Torres Strait (excluding Badu, Murray, Thursday and Horn Islands)
• Northern Peninsula Area
• Kowanyama.

We are still working with communities that aren’t on that list.

Getting advice

To learn more about becoming a home owner in a remote and discrete community, contact either the:

• Department of Treaty, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Communities and Arts on 1800 001 931
• Department of Housing and Public Works via:
  • phone: (07) 4036 5505
  • email: FNHHRemoteHomeOwnership@housing.qld.gov.au

More information

• Buying your home under a 99-year home ownership lease
• Land Holding Act Leases
• Our Place: A First Nations Housing and Homelessness Action Plan 2024-27