AU first-home-buyer stamp duty by capital city and price tier (2026)

Australian first-home-buyer stamp duty concessions vary dramatically by state and by purchase price. This page is the cross-state cross-tier matrix nobody publishes: six mainland state capitals, five representative FHB price tiers, both the standard owner-occupier rate and the FHB-concession rate, side by side. Every cell is computed at compile time from the same state-revenue-office formulas we use on our stamp-duty calculator.

Headline finding

Of the 30 computed cells in the matrix below, 9 qualify for a full FHB exemption (zero stamp duty), 3 fall into a tapered concession band, and 18 require the standard owner-occupier rate. At the lowest price tier ($600,000 entry) the pooled FHB-tier saving across the six states is 68% off the standard rate. Aggregate savings across all 30 cells: $285,607 compared to paying the standard rate.

The matrix

ACT, from 1 July 2026

The 2026-27 ACT Budget abolished stamp duty entirely for every eligible ACT first home buyer, with no income test and no price cap, the first Australian state or territory to fully scrap it. Because that change is now in force, every ACT row below shows $0 regardless of price (up from the former $1,020,000 income-tested full-exemption threshold). Source: ACT Government 2026-27 Budget, revenue.act.gov.au.

StatePurchase priceStandard dutyFHB duty
New South Wales$600k$21,187$0 (exempt)
New South Wales$750k$27,937$0 (exempt)
New South Wales$900k$34,687$19,594 (save $15,093)
New South Wales$1.1m$43,687$43,687
New South Wales$1.4m$58,287$58,287
Victoria$600k$31,070$0 (exempt)
Victoria$750k$40,070$40,070
Victoria$900k$49,070$49,070
Victoria$1.1m$60,500$60,500
Victoria$1.4m$77,000$77,000
Queensland$600k$12,850$0 (exempt)
Queensland$750k$19,600$10,925 (save $8,675)
Queensland$900k$26,350$26,350
Queensland$1.1m$36,600$36,600
Queensland$1.4m$53,850$53,850
Western Australia$600k$22,515$13,630 (save $8,885)
Western Australia$750k$29,741$29,741
Western Australia$900k$37,466$37,466
Western Australia$1.1m$47,766$47,766
Western Australia$1.4m$63,216$63,216
South Australia$600k$26,830$26,830
South Australia$750k$35,080$35,080
South Australia$900k$43,330$43,330
South Australia$1.1m$54,330$54,330
South Australia$1.4m$70,830$70,830
Australian Capital Territory$600k$12,728$0 (exempt)
Australian Capital Territory$750k$19,208$0 (exempt)
Australian Capital Territory$900k$28,058$0 (exempt)
Australian Capital Territory$1.1m$40,358$0 (exempt)
Australian Capital Territory$1.4m$59,558$0 (exempt)

Every cell is computed from the state formula for an established-home purchase (no new-build bonuses applied). From 1 July 2026 the ACT abolished first home buyer conveyance duty entirely, so all ACT rows show $0 at any price, with no income test or price cap. The NSW, VIC, QLD and WA first-home concession bands are each computed exactly from the state formula.

See what you can actually borrow at these prices

Stamp duty is only one cost. A free first-home-buyer broker compares 30+ lenders against your numbers and structures the loan around the concessions you qualify for. Free to you, the lender pays the broker.

Match me with a free broker

Methodology

Every figure in the matrix is computed at compile time from the state-revenue-office formulas current for FY2026-27. The formulas themselves live in our public repository at src/lib/stamp-duty-state-formulas.ts and are sourced from:

The FHB-concession calculation assumes an established home in all rows (no new-build bonuses applied). New-build rules differ in QLD (no price cap since 1 May 2025) and NT (house-and-land-package exemption). These are documented in our per-state state grants pages.

What this baseline reveals

  • VIC's $600k cliff is the harshest in the country. VIC's full exemption ends at $600,000; the taper window ($600k to $750k) is the narrowest of any state. Anyone buying at $750k pays close to the standard rate.
  • ACT is now the most generous jurisdiction. From 1 July 2026 an eligible ACT first home buyer pays $0 at any price, with no income test and no price cap, up from the former $1,020,000 income-tested full-exemption threshold. For the same purchase price, ACT buyers now save more than buyers in any other state.
  • NSW's FHBAS at $800k full exemption puts NSW second on the threshold ladder, but the $1m-plus tier shows the standard rate kicks in fast above the $1m concession ceiling.
  • QLD's established-home concession ends at $800k. But QLD new builds carry no price cap since 1 May 2025, a separate research artifact we will publish for the new-build path.

What this does not prove

Honest scope. This baseline shows what FHB stamp-duty rates are at five representative price tiers in six mainland states. It does not:

  • Predict your actual stamp duty: that depends on whether the property is new vs established, whether you qualify for the scheme, and whether the threshold has shifted since publication. Use the stamp-duty calculator for your specific case.
  • Cover NT and TAS. Our formula library uses a simpler tiered approximation for these two; we have deliberately excluded them from this matrix rather than publish numbers at lower confidence than the other six states.
  • Cover suburb-level median prices. The 2,600-postcode version of this dataset is on our roadmap; we did not ship that as part of this MVP because programmatic pages at that scale risk Google's May 2026 Core Update “scaled content abuse” filter without commensurate per-postcode editorial depth. See our editorial methodology for how we scope programmatic content.

Cite this

Suggested citation:

Puri, A. (2026). AU First-Home-Buyer Stamp Duty by Capital City and Price Tier (2026 Baseline). NestPath Research. https://nestpath.com.au/research/au-stamp-duty-by-suburb-2026

Licensed CC BY 4.0, reuse with attribution. Machine-readable JSON: /data/au-stamp-duty-by-suburb-2026.json.

Refresh schedule

State stamp-duty rates and FHB-concession thresholds change at start-of-financial-year (1 July) and on ad-hoc policy announcements. This baseline is reissued with the new FY rates and supplemented with policy-changelog entries as they happen. The page's dateModified advances only on real edits per our dateModified honesty rule.

Related research