Terry is right.

To be a bit more specific, you must live in the property yourself for the six consecutive months out of the first 12 months that you own the property.

Also, you (and anyone buying the property with you) must never have owned a property as a PPOR before (that is, you cannot have lived in a property that you owned AT ALL, even for a short time).

This does mean that you are allowed to own property solely for investment purposes (ie you don't live in it) before you apply for the FHOG, but only if you bought those investment properties after the 1st July 2001.

So, if you're prepared to live in – and pay the mortgage on – an investment property for six months before you rent it out, this is a great way to get money to start investing!

Taking an even longer-term view of it, you can also apply this to the First Home Savers Account, as long as you're happy to wait for four years and save steadily until you can access it. Right now, it may be more practical and lucrative (in terms of capital gains and increases in rental returns as well) to take the boost in the FHOG while you can though!