First home buyer stamp duty concession.
Stamp duty concession status
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Your breakdown
Updates live as you type| State | Full exemption up to | Status at $650,000 |
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The biggest cheque a first home buyer can avoid
Stamp duty, formally transfer duty, is the lump-sum tax a state charges when property changes hands, and on a normal purchase it is often the single largest cost after the deposit itself. The good news for first home buyers is that every state offers a concession or a full exemption below certain price points, and these can wipe out tens of thousands of dollars. The catch is that the thresholds differ wildly from state to state, and they are set by each state revenue office rather than the ATO, because stamp duty is a state tax, not a federal one. This tool checks your purchase price against the first-home thresholds for your state and tells you whether you fall into a full exemption, a partial concession, or no relief at all.
How four states draw their lines
The boundaries built into this tool reflect the headline first-home settings in each jurisdiction. New South Wales gives a full exemption up to $800,000 and a sliding concession to $1 million. Victoria runs a full exemption to $600,000 and a concession to $750,000. Queensland, after its 2025 changes, offers a full exemption to $700,000 and a concession to $800,000. Western Australia is the lowest, with a full exemption to $450,000 and a concession to $600,000. The difference is stark: a $650,000 home is completely duty-free for a first home buyer in NSW, but in WA it sits in the concession zone, and in Victoria too it would attract a partial concession only.
A $650,000 purchase across the states
Enter $650,000 with NSW selected and the tool reports a full exemption: no duty at all, because the price is under the $800,000 NSW threshold. Switch the state dropdown and the same price tells a different story, as the table shows.
This is why the same buyer can pay zero duty in Sydney's outer suburbs and several thousand dollars on an identical price in Melbourne or Perth. The tool gives you the status; for the partial-concession cases you then confirm the exact dollar figure with the state revenue office, because the sliding scale is calculated differently in each state.
Eligibility rules that trip people up
Qualifying is about more than the price. Every state requires that you have never owned residential property in Australia before, including investment property, which surprises people who bought a rental years ago and assumed a home to live in would still count as their first. Most states also require you to move in and live there for a continuous period, commonly six or twelve months starting within the first year, so buying a first home and immediately renting it out usually voids the concession. The concession generally applies to the dutiable value, which can include the land plus a contract to build, not only established homes, but the rules around off-the-plan and vacant land vary by state.
A practical warning: these thresholds are among the most frequently changed numbers in Australian property, revised at almost every state budget, and a generous setting can be wound back with little notice. The figures here reflect recent settings, but before you commit to a contract you should pull up the current schedule on your own state revenue office website, because being a few thousand dollars over a threshold can cost far more in duty than the gap itself. Also keep first home buyer grants separate in your mind: a duty exemption reduces a cost, while a grant is cash paid toward your purchase, and the two have different eligibility rules even though people lump them together.
Does the exemption apply if I buy with a partner who already owns a home?
Generally no, or only partially. Most states require all purchasers to be eligible first home buyers, so if one partner has owned property before, the concession is often reduced or denied for the whole purchase. A few states apportion it to the eligible buyer's share. This is a detail worth confirming with the revenue office before you sign, because it can change the maths considerably.
Is stamp duty the only government cost when I buy?
No. Even with a full duty exemption you still pay a land transfer registration fee and a mortgage registration fee, which are modest but real, and your lender may require lenders mortgage insurance if your deposit is under 20 percent. This tool covers only the transfer duty concession, so budget separately for those smaller line items.