What stamp duty concessions are available for first home buyers by state?

There’s no national first home buyer stamp duty concession — duty is state and territory legislation, and each of the eight jurisdictions sets its own rules, thresholds and property-type restrictions. Some remove duty entirely below a threshold and taper it above; one has no value cap at all but excludes established homes; two currently have no first-home-buyer-specific duty concession. The table below sets out where each jurisdiction stands as at July 2026 — but these settings are unusually volatile: five of the eight have changed materially in the twelve months to July 2026, so check the linked revenue office before relying on a figure for your own purchase.

Stamp duty (sometimes called transfer duty) is a one-off state government tax on transferring property, generally payable within 30 days of settlement, with the amount set by where the property is and its dutiable value — usually the purchase price or market value, whichever is higher.

First home buyer stamp duty concessions — state by state (as at July 2026)

Jurisdiction	Full exemption	Concession band	Established homes?
NSW	≤ $800,000 (homes); ≤ $350,000 (vacant land)	$800,000–<$1,000,000 (homes); $350,000–<$450,000 (land)	Yes — same thresholds as new
VIC	≤ $600,000	$600,001–$750,000 (SRO calculator; no published formula)	Yes, and vacant land
QLD	New/vacant: no cap; existing home ≤ $700,000	Existing home: stepped concession, nil from $800,000	Yes — separate, capped track
SA	No value cap	— full relief regardless of price, by property type	No — excluded entirely
WA	$500,000 (currently assessed)	To $700,000 metro/Peel or $750,000 elsewhere	Yes
TAS	None currently in force	None	N/A — relief lapsed
ACT	$0 duty, no cap (from 1 Jul 2026)	— full exemption regardless of value	Yes — no new/established split
NT	No first-home-buyer-specific concession	—	N/A

Jurisdiction	Residence requirement	Citizenship / PR test
NSW	12 months, starting within 12 months of settlement	At least one buyer
VIC	12 months, starting within 12 months of settlement	All buyers
QLD	12 months, starting within 12 months of settlement	None until 1 Aug 2026; all buyers after
SA	6 months within 12 months (land: 12–36)	One buyer: citizen, PR, or eligible NZ
WA	Tied to First Home Owner Grant eligibility criteria	Tied to First Home Owner Grant eligibility criteria
TAS	N/A — no concession in force	N/A
ACT	12 months, starting within 1 year of settlement	No citizenship/PR test — 5-year ownership look-back instead
NT	N/A — no concession	N/A

Every one of these schemes works differently — they aren’t variants of one national design. NSW and VIC set flat value bands; QLD runs three separate tracks with a stepped concession-amount table rather than a sliding rate; WA publishes an explicit per-$100 phase-out rate with a metro/regional split; SA has no cap but a hard property-type exclusion; the ACT has no cap and no income test but a five-year look-back instead of a strict never-owned test. Don’t assume one state’s mechanism explains another’s.

South Australia: no cap, but established homes get nothing

SA is the only jurisdiction that removed its value cap entirely — for contracts from 6 June 2024, RevenueSA states “full stamp duty relief is available, regardless of the property value.” But the relief only reaches a new home, an off-the-plan apartment, or vacant land you build on; RevenueSA’s own wording is that relief “is not available for … the purchase of an established home.” No other state draws that line. Applicants must occupy the home for a continuous 6 months, starting within 12 months of settlement (12–36 months for vacant land), and at least one applicant must be an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen on a special category visa.

Western Australia: a duty threshold rise is legislated, but the new figures aren’t published yet

The first home owner rate of duty — WA’s stamp duty concession — has applied at its current thresholds since 21 March 2025: no duty up to $500,000, then a phased rate up to $700,000 in the Perth metropolitan and Peel regions, or $750,000 elsewhere. RevenueWA confirms legislation has been introduced to raise these duty thresholds and to remove the link between them and the separate First Home Owner Grant property cap — but as at July 2026 that change remains “subject to the Parliamentary process and updates to RevenueWA’s systems,” with no new duty thresholds published yet — check the RevenueWA duties page for the current thresholds once the legislation takes effect. Don’t confuse this pending duty change with the separate First Home Owner Grant cap — a one-off payment, not a duty concession — which did rise, to $800,000 for homes south of the 26th parallel of south latitude, for transactions from 7 May 2026; RevenueWA says of that change specifically that it “has now been applied.” Until the duty thresholds themselves are updated, the $500,000/$700,000/$750,000 figures above remain the only ones that apply to the stamp duty concession itself.

Tasmania: the established-home duty exemption has lapsed

Tasmania’s 100% duty exemption for first home buyers of established homes valued at $750,000 or less ran for transfers completing between 18 February 2024 and 30 June 2026 — and the trigger was the settlement date, not the contract date. The State Revenue Office states the exemption “is not available for transactions settling after 30 June 2026,” so a contract signed before that date that settles afterwards gets no relief. No successor duty scheme has appeared as at July 2026. Tasmania’s remaining first-home support is its First Home Owner Grant — a cash grant for new homes, which is a different scheme and not a duty concession.

Northern Territory: there’s no first-home-buyer-specific duty concession

The NT has no stamp duty exemption or discount aimed at first home buyers. The closest available relief, the House and Land Package Exemption, is open to any buyer — it isn’t first-home-buyer-specific — and applies where a buyer purchases a house-and-land package from a building contractor under a contract signed between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2027, with no means test and no value cap. An NT first home buyer may be able to use it, but so can anyone else buying the same way; it should never be described as an NT first home buyer stamp duty concession in its own right. The Territory’s actual first-home support is delivered through grants (HomeGrown Territory and FreshStart), not duty relief.

Queensland’s citizenship change is still to come

Queensland currently applies no citizenship or permanent residency test to its first home duty concessions. That changes from 1 August 2026 — a Queensland Revenue Office change, not yet in effect at the time of writing — after which buyers claiming a first home, first home vacant land, or home concession will need to be an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or a specified foreign retiree. Anyone reading this before that date should note the rule as forthcoming, not current; anyone reading after it should check the QRO page directly, since a change like this can carry transition detail this guide doesn’t cover.

The ACT’s move to $0 duty

Since 1 July 2026, the ACT’s Home Buyer Concession Scheme has removed both its property value cap and its income test — eligible buyers now pay $0 conveyance duty on a home or vacant land of any value, and the scheme is open to new, established and vacant land purchases alike, with no distinction between them (the only jurisdiction that draws no property-type line at all). Before that date, the scheme carried a maximum concession of $35,238 and a $1,020,000 value limit for full relief; that older band is now historical, not current. The eligibility test itself isn’t a strict first-home-buyer test either — it disqualifies a buyer whose domestic partner has owned property in the last five years, rather than requiring the buyer has never owned property at all.

The scheme is self-assessed: the ACT Revenue Office doesn’t confirm eligibility upfront, runs compliance checks two or more years later, and applies a default 25% penalty tax where the requirements weren’t actually met. Tax outcomes depend on your circumstances — speak with a registered tax agent before acting if you’re unsure whether a past or planned purchase meets the current conditions.

Victoria’s tapering band doesn’t have a published formula

Victoria’s concession applies between $600,001 and $750,000 of dutiable value, but the State Revenue Office doesn’t publish the phase-out as a formula — it publishes a calculator instead. If your purchase falls in that band, the calculator is the only authoritative way to get your figure; this guide won’t estimate one.

How these concessions interact with grants and surcharges

A stamp duty concession is separate from a First Home Owner Grant — see our guide to First Home Owner Grant rules by state — and separate again from the federal 5% Deposit Scheme; qualifying for one doesn’t determine eligibility for the others. Foreign-purchaser duty surcharges can also apply on top of, or instead of, a first home concession depending on the buyer’s residency status. These schemes genuinely interact, but exactly how they interact for a given purchase depends on the property, the state and the buyer’s own circumstances — that’s a calculation for a licensed conveyancer or your state revenue office, not something this guide will compute for you.

Which concession applies to you?

That isn’t a question this guide can answer in the abstract — it depends on which state you’re buying in, whether the home is new, established or vacant land, your citizenship or residency status, and the exact date you exchange or settle. The revenue office links throughout this page, and their calculators where one exists, are the right starting point; a licensed conveyancer can confirm how the rules apply to your specific contract before you sign.

For the deposit side of buying your first home, see our guide to how much deposit you need for a first home in Australia. If a national scheme is also part of your plan, our guide to buying with a 5% deposit covers how that interacts with state-based support. For NSW specifically, see how to apply for the NSW First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme.