First Home Buyer Stamp Duty Concessions in 2026: State by State

Stamp duty must generally be paid in full at settlement and cannot be added to your home loan, so it needs to be budgeted as upfront cash, separate from your deposit. On a non-concessional purchase, stamp duty on a $500,000 owner-occupied home ranges from around $8,750 in Queensland up to nearly $24,000 in Victoria — so knowing whether you qualify for a first home buyer concession, and how large it is, can materially change how much cash you need on settlement day.

The research available does not include confirmed 2026 first-home-buyer stamp duty concession figures for South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. If you're buying in one of these jurisdictions, check directly with your state or territory's revenue office for the current concession thresholds before budgeting your settlement costs.

Across the jurisdictions with confirmed data, first home buyer stamp duty concessions generally require:

• You (and your partner, if applicable) are an Australian citizen or permanent resident
• Neither you nor your partner has previously owned residential property
• You move into the property and live there as your principal place of residence, usually for a minimum period of 6 to 12 months depending on the state
• The property is not purchased as an investment

Queensland's first home concession illustrates how detailed these rules can get in practice. Beyond the $800,000 value cap, the concession requires:

• You must not sell or transfer any part of the property before moving in
• After moving in, you can lease part of the property (for example, renting out a room), but only if that lease arrangement started on or after 10 September 2024 and you continue to live there
• You cannot lease or grant exclusive possession of the entire property within one year of moving in, or you risk losing the concession
• If there are existing tenants in the property when you buy it, they must move out either when their lease expires or within six months of settlement, whichever comes first
• The concession does not apply if you demolish the existing home without living in it first, even if you build and move into a new home within a year

These conditions matter because breaching them after settlement — even unintentionally, such as renting out the whole property sooner than planned — can trigger a clawback of the concession.

From 1 July 2026, the ACT is set to become the first Australian jurisdiction to scrap stamp duty entirely for first home buyers, rather than offering a threshold-based exemption or concession. This is part of the ACT's long-running, multi-decade plan to phase out stamp duty in favour of a broader land tax base. For an ACT first home buyer settling on or after that date, this removes what is otherwise one of the largest upfront costs of buying, without needing to stay under a specific property value cap in the way Victoria, NSW and Queensland require.

To put the value of these concessions in context, here is what stamp duty costs a non-first-home-buyer owner-occupier on a $500,000 property, without any concession:

This gives a sense of how much a full exemption is worth in states like Victoria and NSW, where the standard rate is high, compared with Queensland or the ACT where the baseline rate is already comparatively lower.

The application process is broadly similar across jurisdictions, though the exact forms differ:

1. Check your eligibility using your state revenue office's guidance or an online stamp duty calculator before making an offer
2. Prepare your supporting documents — proof of identity, the contract of sale, and a first home buyer declaration form
3. Apply either directly online through your state revenue office, or through your conveyancer or solicitor, who will usually handle this as part of settlement
4. Get the concession approved before or during settlement, since this reduces the amount of stamp duty you need to pay upfront rather than requiring you to pay in full and claim it back later

If you're planning a purchase in Victoria, NSW, Queensland or the ACT, check your specific property price against the thresholds above before you make an offer — in Victoria and NSW in particular, going even slightly over the full exemption threshold moves you into a sliding-scale concession rather than a full exemption, which changes your settlement budget. If you're buying in SA, WA, Tasmania or the NT, contact your state revenue office directly, since the concession details for those jurisdictions were not available in the research used for this guide.

Can I get a first home buyer concession if my partner has previously owned a home, even if I haven't? Across the jurisdictions covered here, eligibility generally requires that neither you nor your partner has previously owned property. Check the specific rules with your state revenue office, as treatment of partners can vary.

Does the ACT's stamp duty exemption apply to purchases before 1 July 2026? No — based on the research available, the full exemption applies from 1 July 2026 onward. Purchases settling before that date would be assessed under the ACT's prior stamp duty rules.

What happens if I breach the "must live in the home" condition after getting a concession? The consequences vary by state, but as Queensland's rules illustrate, breaching occupancy or leasing conditions after settlement can result in losing the concession and being required to pay the difference. Always confirm the specific conditions with your state revenue office before making changes to how you use the property.