Stamp Duty Calculator

How stamp duty works

Stamp duty (most states now call it transfer duty) is a state tax on buying property. You pay it once, at settlement, on top of your deposit, and most lenders will not add it to the loan. The bill is worked out on the higher of what you paid and what the property is worth, using a sliding scale set by your state or territory. That scale is why a $850,000 home costs an investor about $32,400 in duty in NSW, $46,100 in Victoria and $31,300 in Queensland.

Three things decide your number: which state the property is in, the price, and whether you are a first home buyer, an owner-occupier or an investor. Whether the home is brand new matters too in Queensland and South Australia, where first home buyers of a new home pay nothing at any price.

What changed for 2026-27

Most stamp duty calculators online are still running last year’s rules. These are the changes we have built in, each checked against the state revenue office:

• NSW lifted every threshold with inflation on 1 July 2026. The 4.5 per cent band now starts at $387,000 and the 5.5 per cent band at $1,290,000. First home buyers still pay nothing up to $800,000 and a reduced amount up to $1,000,000.
• ACT removed both the price cap and the income test from its Home Buyer Concession Scheme on 1 July 2026. An eligible first home buyer in Canberra now pays no duty on any home, at any price.
• Tasmania’s first home buyer exemption for established homes ended on 30 June 2026. Nothing replaced it, so a first home buyer in Hobart now pays the same duty as an investor.
• WA raised its first home owner threshold to $600,000 on 7 May 2026, with a reduced rate up to $800,000, and scrapped the old Perth-versus-regional split.
• Queensland first home buyers pay nothing on a new home or vacant land at any price, and nothing on an established home up to $700,000, tapering off to $800,000.
• South Australia’s first home relief only covers new homes, off-the-plan apartments and land. An established home pays full duty even for a first home buyer.

Where the popular calculators go wrong

We rebuilt this calculator from the legislation and the revenue office tables rather than copying another site, and found three errors that keep getting passed around.

The NSW first home buyer formula. The version on most broker blogs undercharges by exactly $1,687.50 across the whole $800,000 to $1,000,000 band. The correct formula from the Duties Act takes the duty on $800,000 (this year $30,187), scales it by how far your price sits below $1,000,000, and subtracts that from the full duty. At $850,000 that gives $9,796.75, which matches Revenue NSW’s own calculator to the cent.

Victoria’s cliff at $960,000. From $960,001 to $2,000,000 Victoria charges a flat 5.5 per cent on the whole price, not just the part above the threshold. Duty at $960,000 is $52,670; at $960,001 it is $52,800. Calculators that treat it as a normal band get every Melbourne price in that range wrong.

Rounding. Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and WA charge duty “for every $100 or part of $100”, which means the price is rounded up to the next $100 before the rate is applied. NSW and the ACT do the same with the amount above each threshold. A price of $650,050 in Queensland is taxed as $650,100.

First home buyers: what you pay in each state

For a first home buyer purchasing an established home, the picture in 2026-27 is uneven. At $700,000 you pay nothing in NSW, Victoria pays $24,713 (the exemption stops at $600,000), Queensland pays nothing, WA pays $16,150, South Australia pays $32,330, Tasmania pays $26,748, the ACT pays nothing and the NT pays $34,650. Move the price to $850,000 and NSW asks for $9,797, Victoria $46,070, Queensland $24,100, WA $34,891 and the ACT still nothing. Use the state-by-state bars in the calculator to see how far a border move changes the bill.

What else you pay at settlement

Duty is the big one but it is not the only cheque. Budget for mortgage registration and transfer fees (a few hundred dollars each, set by the state land registry), your conveyancer or solicitor, building and pest inspections, lenders mortgage insurance if your deposit is under 20 per cent, and any council or water rates the seller has paid in advance. Foreign buyers pay a surcharge of 7 to 8 per cent on top of duty in every state except the NT. None of those are in this calculator.

If you are working out how much deposit is left after duty, run the number through our borrowing power calculator and loan repayment calculator next. Buying to build? The construction loan calculator shows how interest is charged while the house goes up.

Frequently asked questions

When do I actually pay? At settlement in every state, though NSW gives you three months from exchange and Victoria 30 days from settlement. Your conveyancer lodges it and the money usually comes out of your settlement funds.

Can I borrow the stamp duty? Not directly. Lenders assess your deposit after duty, so the cash has to be there. Some lenders allow a guarantor or a higher loan-to-value ratio to cover it, which is where a broker earns their keep.

I bought off the plan in Victoria, do I get a discount? Yes, until 21 April 2027 Victoria lets any buyer of a strata apartment or townhouse deduct the construction cost still to come from the dutiable value. A $1,000,000 apartment with $400,000 of building left is taxed as a $600,000 purchase.

Is duty different for a company or trust? The rate scale is the same, but concessions are for individuals only, so a trust buying in the ACT or Queensland pays the investor rate, and in NSW a family trust can also trigger the foreign surcharge if the deed does not exclude foreign beneficiaries.

Does the calculator handle vacant land? It uses the home thresholds. Land concessions for first home buyers are lower in NSW ($350,000 to $450,000) and WA ($450,000 to $550,000), so check your revenue office for a block.

Related calculators

• Loan repayment calculator
• Borrowing power calculator
• Offset account calculator
• Capital gains tax calculator
• Construction loan calculator

Need someone to handle the duty paperwork? See our rankings of the best conveyancers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.