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Stamp Duty Calculator (State-by-State)
Stamp Duty Calculator
Estimated Stamp Duty
$32,662
Duty Analysis
New South Wales charges roughly $32,662 on a $850,000 purchase — an effective rate of 3.84%, equivalent to $384.26 per $10,000 of value. Remember this is general duty: first home buyer concessions, off-the-plan discounts and principal place of residence concessions can reduce it substantially where you qualify.
*General (unconcessional) transfer duty schedules, indicative as at the 2024-25 financial year; NT is approximated piecewise from its formula. Excludes foreign-owner surcharges, mortgage duty and transfer/registration fees. First home buyer concessions are not applied. Verify with your state revenue office before exchange.
The Single Biggest Cost Hiding Inside Your Deposit
Stamp duty, formally called transfer duty, is the state and territory tax on property purchases, and for most buyers it is the largest upfront cost after the deposit itself. On a median-priced capital city home it typically runs between fifteen and forty thousand dollars depending entirely on which side of a state border you buy: the same house can cost tens of thousands more in duty in Sydney than in Darwin or Canberra at certain price points. What makes stamp duty so punishing is that it cannot be borrowed against the property. Lenders will fund ninety-plus per cent of a home's value but expect duty, registration fees and legal costs to come from genuine savings, so the real cash required at settlement is deposit plus duty plus incidentals. Each jurisdiction runs its own progressive schedule with its own brackets, thresholds and concession schemes, and first home buyer exemptions can wipe out tens of thousands where eligible. Because every state rewrites its schedule periodically, this calculator keeps the schedules visible as data rather than buried in code, and shows you exactly what general duty applies to your price in your state.
Progressive Brackets, Eight Different Ladders
Every jurisdiction charges duty through progressive brackets that work like income tax: each slice of the purchase price is taxed at that band's rate, with the bands and rates differing by state. New South Wales steps from one point two five per cent on early dollars up to five point five per cent above one point two four million, while Queensland reaches five point seven five per cent only past one million. Victoria uniquely charges a flat five point five per cent of the entire value once price crosses nine hundred and sixty thousand, rather than applying marginal slices. The calculator walks your chosen state's schedule band by band, summing each slice, then reports three numbers: total duty, the effective rate against your price, and the average duty per ten thousand dollars of value. The effective rate reveals how steeply each ladder climbs, and comparing states at identical prices exposes just how differently eight governments tax the same transaction. Northern Territory uses a quadratic formula below five hundred and twenty-five thousand, approximated here piecewise, and foreign purchaser surcharges exist in most states but sit outside this tool.
Expert Insights
Budget Duty Before You Set Your Price Ceiling
Buyers routinely set their maximum price from the deposit alone and discover at contract that duty adds thirty thousand they do not have. Reverse the logic: take your cash, subtract your deposit target, subtract estimated duty at candidate prices using this calculator, and let what remains define your ceiling. In high-duty states the exercise frequently moves the affordable price down by more than fifty thousand dollars, better to learn that before auction day than at unconditional approval.
Concessions Can Be Worth Six Figures
First home buyer exemptions are dramatic where they apply: New South Wales waives duty entirely under eight hundred thousand, Victoria under six hundred thousand, and several other states run tapered concessions well beyond that. Eligibility usually requires living in the property for a continuous period and meeting residency rules, so investors cannot access them, but owner-occupiers who qualify save more through concessions than any negotiation is likely to achieve. Check your state's scheme before assuming the general schedule applies to you.
State Lines Are a Real Investment Variable
Because duty is charged on entry, it is a deadweight loss an investor must recover through growth before making any return, and the recovery period differs enormously by state. A Perth purchase carrying modest duty starts compounding almost immediately, while a Sydney equivalent spends its first years clawing back nearly fifty thousand of upfront tax. Cross-state portfolio builders should model entry costs alongside yields and growth assumptions, because the differences compound across every acquisition.
Actionable Tips
- 1
Add Duty to Your Savings Target Today
Whatever price range you are targeting, run it through this calculator now and add the result to your deposit savings goal as a separate named bucket. Treating duty as a known number rather than a vague extra converts it from a settlement-day shock into a monthly saving line, and if the combined target looks distant, the honest arithmetic tells you earlier whether to adjust price expectations or timeline.
- 2
Check Concessions Before Assuming General Rates
Before accepting the general-duty figure, spend ten minutes on your state revenue office website checking first home buyer schemes, principal place of residence concessions, off-the-plan discounts and pensioner concessions. In several states these reduce duty by half or eliminate it entirely for eligible buyers. If a concession applies, recalculate your settlement cash needs downward and redirect the difference into your loan buffer or offset.
- 3
Compare States When You Genuinely Have Location Freedom
Remote workers and investors without geographic constraints should run identical price points across all eight jurisdictions here. The spread can exceed twenty-five thousand dollars on a six-hundred-thousand-dollar purchase, money that either stays invested in the property or leaks to revenue offices. Location decisions deserve many inputs, but entry tax is among the largest single differences and takes thirty seconds to quantify.
Real-World Examples
The Wilsons Find Their Real Budget
Pre-approved for nine hundred thousand and holding a hundred-and-eighty-thousand-dollar deposit, the Wilsons assumed their ceiling was set by the bank. Running numbers showed NSW duty near thirty-six thousand at their target price, leaving them short of the cash needed for a comfortable deposit plus costs. They adjusted their search to eight hundred thousand, cut the duty bill by roughly nine thousand, and settled with a genuine buffer intact instead of borrowing from parents at the eleventh hour.
Aisha Qualifies and Saves $31,000
Buying her first apartment in NSW at seven hundred and eighty thousand, Aisha initially budgeted over thirty-one thousand for duty from the general schedule. Her conveyancer confirmed she qualified for the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme exemption, erasing the entire amount. She redirected the savings into an offset account attached to her new loan, cutting years off her interest timeline, and describes checking eligibility as the highest-paid ten minutes of her purchase.
Tom Prices Entry Costs Into His Interstate Move
Relocating from Melbourne to Adelaide with location freedom, Tom compared equivalent six-hundred-thousand-dollar houses in both cities. Victorian duty came to nearly thirty-one thousand against South Australia's twenty-six thousand, and lower ongoing council rates in his target suburb widened the gap further. The entry-cost difference did not decide the move alone, but it tipped an already-close decision and became the first line in his relocation spreadsheet.
Glossary of Terms
- Transfer Duty
- The formal name for stamp duty in most states: a progressive tax on the value of property transferred, payable by the buyer, usually at or shortly after settlement.
- Foreign Purchaser Surcharge
- An additional duty rate, commonly seven to eight per cent, levied on foreign buyers in most states. It sits on top of general duty and is excluded from this calculator's figures.
- Off-the-Plan Concession
- A reduced-duty scheme for buyers contracting properties before construction completes, available in several states with value and timing conditions that determine how much of the price escapes assessment.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Ivy Sinclair-Wren
Financial Chaos Analyst
Ivy Sinclair-Wren is a Financial Chaos Analyst covering investing, AI, wealth psychology, and the emotional consequences of opening finance apps during market crashes. Based in Melbourne, she specializes in demystifying the Australian tax code and helping users navigate the intersection of spreadsheet logic and human irrationality.