How is stamp duty calculated when you buy a home?

Stamp duty is a tax the state or territory government charges when ownership of a property changes hands. Most revenue offices now call it transfer duty (or land transfer duty, or conveyance duty), because it is charged on the transfer of the land, not on the paper contract the old name came from. The words are interchangeable in everyday use: the buyer pays it, once, when they buy.

It is a state and territory tax, not a federal one, which is why it has nothing to do with your income tax return and why the rules differ depending on where the property is. Each jurisdiction runs its own revenue office, sets its own scale, and decides its own concessions.

The duty is on the property, not on your home loan. There is no separate duty on the mortgage itself, so a buyer with a large loan and a buyer paying cash owe the same duty on the same property. How much depends on the property and where it is, which is what the stamp duty and purchase costs calculator works out for you.

Duty is worked out on the property's dutiable value, which is usually the price you agree to pay, or the property's market value if that is higher (so a discounted sale between family members does not lower the tax). Then a sliding scale is applied to that value.

The scale works like income tax brackets. Each bracket has a fixed amount of duty for reaching it, plus a rate charged on every part of the value above the bracket's starting point. The rate rises as the value climbs, so duty grows faster than the price does: a home costing twice as much attracts more than twice the duty in most jurisdictions. One uses a formula rather than brackets at the lower end, and some set a minimum duty for very low values, but the principle is the same: more value, a higher rate on the top slice.

Which scale applies can also depend on what you are buying and why. Some jurisdictions run a lower scale for a home you will live in than for an investment property, and treat vacant land differently again. The stamp duty and purchase costs calculator asks for the price, the state or territory, the property type and whether you will live in it, then applies the matching scale.

Because each state and territory parliament sets its own scale, and they have drifted apart over decades. The bracket boundaries sit at different values, the rate on each slice differs, and some jurisdictions add a premium rate at the very top of the market.

The scales also move at different speeds. Some index their brackets every year so they keep pace with prices; others leave them fixed for years and then change them in a budget. One territory has been steadily reshaping its duty under a long-running tax reform program. A scale that was competitive when it was set can quietly become one of the dearest as prices rise around it.

On top of the general scale, some jurisdictions give owner-occupiers a separate, lower scale up to a value cap, and the first home buyer concessions (next section) differ again. The net effect is that the same purchase price can cost noticeably different duty across the border, and which state is cheapest can flip depending on the price. The calculator lets you switch the state and see the estimate change for the same price.

Often less, and sometimes none. Most states and territories offer some help to first home buyers on duty, but the shape of it varies more than most people expect, so the honest answer for a given purchase is "it depends on where you buy, what you buy, and the price".

The common pattern is a full exemption below a set purchase price, then a concession (a reduced amount of duty) that phases back up to the full amount as the price rises to an upper limit. Above that limit, a first home buyer pays the same as anyone else. Some jurisdictions taper the concession smoothly; some step it down in bands; one charges a lower concessional rate of duty instead of a taper. Some limit the help to a newly built home or vacant land you will build on, so an established home gets no duty concession there; others apply it to established homes as well. And the help can lapse or be reshaped between budgets, so a jurisdiction can have no general concession for a time, or only one tied to a particular kind of purchase.

The schemes carry their own names, which are worth recognising in a contract or on a revenue office page: the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme, the first home buyer duty exemption or concession, the first home concession, the first home owner rate of duty, stamp duty relief for first home buyers, the Home Buyer Concession Scheme. Different names, same idea: less duty for an eligible first home.

Eligibility is a separate question from price. The rules usually ask that it is genuinely your first home (no prior property ownership by you or, in some places, your partner), that you move in within a set time and live there for a set period, and that at least one buyer is a citizen or permanent resident. Some add other tests, such as a minimum age. The calculator shows whether a concession applies at your price and property type, names the scheme it applied, and spells out the eligibility it assumed. Whether you personally meet those rules is something a broker, your conveyancer or the revenue office confirms.

A surcharge is extra duty on top of the standard amount. Most states and territories charge one when the buyer is a foreign person, worked out as an additional percentage of the dutiable value; a couple charge none. It sits on top of the standard duty, so a foreign buyer's total can be substantially higher than a local buyer's for the same home.

Who counts as "foreign" is defined by each jurisdiction and the definitions are not identical. Broadly it means someone who is not a citizen or permanent resident, and companies or trusts with foreign owners can be caught too. Some places treat particular visa holders differently. It is also separate from the federal foreign investment approval a foreign buyer may need before purchasing, which has its own fee.

The calculator has a foreign buyer switch that adds the surcharge for the chosen state or territory. If your residency status is in question, that is a conversation to have with a broker or conveyancer before you sign, not after.

Duty is the biggest government charge, but not the only one, and the calculator itemises the rest so the total upfront figure is honest. The land titles office in each state charges a fee to register the transfer of the property into your name (flat in some places, scaled to the price in others) and a separate fee to register your lender's mortgage on the title. If you have an existing home loan being paid out, there is usually a fee to register its discharge as well.

Then there are the private costs: conveyancing or legal fees for the settlement work, lender fees (application, valuation, settlement), building and pest inspections, and moving. If your deposit is small relative to the price, lenders mortgage insurance (LMI, a one-off premium that protects the lender, not you) can be a large extra line. The calculator carries editable estimates for conveyancing and lender fees and lets you add your own lines; LMI is a broker conversation, because the premium depends on the lender and the loan.

Grants run the other way. The First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) is a cash payment an eligible first home buyer receives, mostly for a newly built home, and it is a grant, not a reduction in duty: the duty is still assessed in full, and the grant arrives separately. The calculator shows any grant alongside the duty estimate and never nets one against the other.

Duty is generally paid at or just before settlement, the day the property legally becomes yours, and your conveyancer or solicitor arranges the payment as part of the settlement process. Each state sets its own deadline (measured from the contract date or from settlement, and sometimes longer for an off-the-plan purchase), and paying late attracts interest, so it is one of the settlement dates worth knowing.

Because a home loan is sized against the property's value, duty and the other upfront costs usually come from your own funds rather than the loan, on top of your deposit. That is why a purchase budget starts with the deposit and then adds duty and fees, and why the calculator shows a total upfront figure (price plus duty plus costs), not duty alone. If your funds are tight, a broker can talk through how a purchase might be structured; the honest answer depends on your situation.

Your figure. This page explains the shape of stamp duty and deliberately quotes no rates, thresholds or amounts, because they change (some every July, some on budget night) and a number here would go stale. The stamp duty and purchase costs calculatorgives an indicative estimate for your price, state or territory, property type and buyer status, drawn from each revenue office's published figures and checked regularly against them, with the source and effective date shown under the result.

Whether you qualify. The calculator assumes you meet the eligibility rules of any concession or grant it shows and says so; it cannot check your ownership history, residency or how you will use the home. It also does not model every concession (off-the-plan reductions and pensioner or seniors schemes, for example). A broker or your conveyancer confirms the exact duty for a real purchase, and the revenue office is the final word.

What it means for your loan. Duty is one part of a purchase budget, and how it interacts with your deposit, borrowing capacity and LMI is personal to you. That is a conversation, not a paragraph.