Victorian off-the-plan stamp duty calculator

Sign an off-the-plan contract early in the build and you can pay a fraction of the stamp duty you would pay on the finished home. Victoria works out off-the-plan duty on the contract price minus the construction costs incurred on or after the day you sign. The earlier you sign, the less there is left to tax.

The calculator below shows your estimated duty with the off-the-plan concession and without it, plus the working. The rest of this page explains how the concession works, which version you can use, and how to check the figure your vendor eventually sends through.

Buying an established home rather than off the plan? Use our Victorian stamp duty calculator.

How does the off-the-plan concession work?

The off-the-plan concession lets you deduct the construction costs incurred on or after your contract date from the dutiable value of the property. You then pay duty on what is left, not on the full contract price. The method comes straight from the State Revenue Office’s guidance, and it is the same method this calculator follows.

Here is the sum in plain terms. Take the total construction costs for your property. Work out how much of the build was finished on the day you signed. Whatever was still to be built comes off the contract price, and you pay duty on the remainder.

Your signing date does the heavy lifting. Sign before work starts and every dollar of construction cost comes off. Sign when the building is half up and only half comes off. Same apartment, same price, different duty.

Two limits are worth knowing before you lean on any of this. The concession applies to the first sale of the lot after the plan of subdivision is registered. Sub-sales, where you take over a lot someone else already bought, generally miss out. And if you are buying from a related party, the State Revenue Office can ask for the market value of the finished property. That can push the dutiable value higher than the simple sum suggests.

If stamp duty itself is new territory for you, our plain-English guide to stamp duty in Victoria covers the basics before you get into the off-the-plan wrinkles.

Which off-the-plan concession applies to you?

Victoria runs two off-the-plan concessions at the same time. They use the same deduction; what differs is who can use them and whether a cap applies.

The temporary concession for strata apartments and townhouses is the broad one. It covers contracts signed on or after 21 October 2024 and before 21 April 2027, and it has no price cap. Every kind of buyer can use it, including investors, companies and trusts. The catch is the property. Your lot has to be in a strata subdivision with common property, which covers most apartments and a good number of townhouse developments. A house and land package on its own title does not qualify.

The ongoing concession is the narrow one. It only helps if you are a first home buyer or buying a home you will live in. Each purchaser has to be a person aged 18 or over, so companies and trusts are out. Value caps apply to the value after the deduction, not the contract price: $750,000 for a first home buyer, $550,000 for other owner-occupiers. At least one purchaser also has to live in the property for 12 continuous months, starting within 12 months of settlement, or the concession can be reassessed.

Where both could apply to you, the temporary concession is generally the one that does the work, because it has no cap. For a contract signed before 21 April 2027, whether your lot is strata is often the single fact that decides your duty.

One levy sits outside all of this. Foreign purchaser additional duty is 8 per cent of the full contract price, worked out before any off-the-plan concession, so the concession does not reduce it.

The duty is only one part of the deal. Our guide to buying off the plan in Victoria walks you through the rest, from deposit to settlement.

How much difference does the signing date make?

Enough to change the deal. The State Revenue Office publishes worked examples with its concession guidance, and two of them show how far your duty can move.

Michelle buys an apartment off the plan for $1,000,000. Construction costs for her apartment are $400,000, and no work had started when she signed. The whole $400,000 was still to be spent, so the whole $400,000 comes off. Her dutiable value is $600,000, and duty is worked out on that instead of $1,000,000.

Jordan buys for $1,200,000, with construction costs of $500,000, but signs when the building is 50 per cent complete. Half of those costs were already spent, so only the remaining $250,000 comes off. Jordan’s dutiable value is $950,000.

Same kind of purchase. Very different duty. The only thing that changed is how far along the build was on signing day.

One more point on Jordan’s figures. A foreign purchaser in the same position would pay additional duty of 8 per cent on the full $1,200,000, not on the reduced $950,000.

Where does the vendor’s figure come from?

Not from you, and not from this calculator. The official deduction is worked out by your vendor.

Your vendor completes the Digital Duties Form, picks the calculation method, and provides the reduced dutiable value. That figure usually reaches your conveyancer about six months before settlement. Until it arrives, there is no official number for your purchase, which is why everything you see before then, here included, is an estimate.

Two details matter. The vendor chooses between the fixed percentage method and a method based on actual costs, and has to apply the same method to every contract in the development. And the figure reflects the state of the build on your contract date, so two buyers in the same building can get very different numbers.

When the figure lands, check it rather than filing it. Ask which method was used and what percentage of the build was treated as complete on your contract date. If either looks off against what you remember of the site, say so early. Your conveyancer can raise it with the vendor’s side before the duty is assessed, which is an easier conversation than the one after settlement.

How do you estimate duty before the vendor’s figure arrives?

If you are still deciding whether to sign, waiting six months for an official number is no help at all. The State Revenue Office’s Revenue Ruling DA-048v2 sets out a fixed percentage method for exactly this situation. It is the method the calculator uses when you tell it you do not have the vendor’s figure.

The method treats construction costs as a set share of the contract price, based on what is being built:

• A single dwelling, freestanding or sharing a side wall, such as a terrace or duplex: 45 per cent
• A unit or apartment in a building up to 3 storeys, not counting basements: 60 per cent
• A unit or apartment in a building of 4 or more storeys, not counting basements: 75 per cent

From there the sum runs as before. Work out the deemed construction costs, then deduct the share still to be spent at your contract date. The percentage complete rounds down to the nearest 10 per cent first, and that rounding works in your favour.

Here is how it looks on an $800,000 high rise apartment. Deemed construction costs are 75 per cent of $800,000, which is $600,000. If the building was 20 per cent complete when you signed, 80 per cent of those costs were still to come. Your deduction is $480,000 and your dutiable value is $320,000.

Treat a figure like that as a range, not a number. The vendor may use the actual cost method instead, and their completion percentage may not match your impression of the site. An estimate can tell you whether a purchase is worth pursuing. It cannot tell you what to budget.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is stamp duty calculated on an off-the-plan purchase in Victoria?

For an eligible purchase, your duty is worked out on the contract price minus the construction costs incurred on or after the contract date. If a $1,000,000 apartment has $400,000 of construction costs and no work has started, duty is assessed on $600,000.

When does the temporary off-the-plan stamp duty concession end in Victoria?

It covers contracts signed on or after 21 October 2024 and before 21 April 2027. The signing date is what counts, not settlement, so you can still qualify if you sign before the deadline and settle well after it.

Can investors and companies use the off-the-plan concession?

Under the temporary concession, yes. It is open to all buyers, including investors, companies and trusts, with no price cap, as long as your lot is in a strata subdivision with common property. The ongoing concession is for first home buyers and owner-occupiers only.

Do foreign buyers pay extra duty on an off-the-plan property?

Yes. Foreign purchaser additional duty is currently 8 per cent of the full contract price, applied before any concession, so the off-the-plan concession does not reduce it. Where a foreign purchaser buys jointly with an Australian citizen or permanent resident, the extra duty is apportioned.

How do I find out my off-the-plan dutiable value before settlement?

Your vendor works it out and provides it through the Digital Duties Form, usually about six months before settlement. Before then you can only estimate. This calculator’s estimate mode uses the State Revenue Office’s fixed percentage method, and the vendor’s figure remains the one that counts.

About this calculator

This calculator gives general information about off-the-plan land transfer duty in Victoria. It is not legal or tax advice, it does not take account of your contract or your circumstances, and it does not decide what you pay. The State Revenue Office assesses duty on the figure your vendor lodges.

The method, the fixed percentages and the concession rules used here were checked on 4 August 2026 against these State Revenue Office sources:

• Understanding the off-the-plan duty concession
• Strata apartments and townhouses temporary concession
• Revenue Ruling DA-048v2, duty concession for off-the-plan sales
• Foreign purchaser additional duty current rates
• The SRO’s land transfer duty calculator

Rates and concession dates change, sometimes at short notice. Confirm the figures with your conveyancer before you rely on them.

Get the contract read before you sign

This calculator tells you roughly what your duty looks like. It cannot tell you whether your contract is a good one.

Off-the-plan contracts carry terms that a standard contract does not:

• The sunset clause, and what happens if the developer misses it
• How much the developer can change your lot before you are entitled to walk away
• The deposit, and where it is held
• What the plan of subdivision actually shows, and what the owners corporation signs you up to

Those are the terms that cost people money, and they are worth having read before you sign.

Send us your contract and Section 32 and we will review them and come back to you within 24 hours, with no cost and no obligation. If you have a deadline, tell us when you send it and we will treat it as urgent. And if you signed in the last day or two, our cooling-off period calculator will tell you where you stand.

Send us your contract for a free 24-hour review