Housing Entitlements

CAN I USE HPAS AND HPSEA AT THE SAME TIME?

Can I use the Home Purchase Assistance Scheme (HPAS) and Home Purchase or Sales Expenses Allowance (HPSEA) at the same time is one of the common questions that we receive.

The short answer is no.

The good news, though, is that you can use them one after another. Understanding how this works can be tricky, and if you get it wrong, you could be missing out on a fair chunk of your ADF Housing Entitlements.

How does HPAS work?

HPAS is used to purchase your own home in your current or new posting location. HPAS gets paid into your bank account as a lump sum of $16,949 (before tax).

You can submit your application for HPAS as soon as you have either signed a contract to buy a house or signed a contract to build a house.

How does HPSEA work?

Unlike HPAS, which is a lump sum, HPSEA is used to reimburse the reasonable costs for selling your home and purchasing a new one when you’re moved for service reasons.

You can only apply for HPSEA if you have used HPAS on the house you are moving out of.

As long as you then follow the buy-sell-buy-sell process each time you move to a new posting locality, you can keep receiving HPSEA for each purchase and sale.

For both of these ADF Housing Entitlements, you will need to meet numerous requirements and eligibility criteria to receive them. We go into more detail about these and strategies for putting them to use in the training videos on the website.