A $700,000 home in Victoria comes with $37,070 of stamp duty at the general rates, and that sits on top of the deposit you have already saved. Stamp duty is a one-off state government tax charged on the transfer of property, and in Victoria it is officially called land transfer duty. You pay it, and the State Revenue Office collects it.
The money normally has to be ready at settlement, so you meet that number on a stamp duty calculator long before your bank account ever does. That is the shock.
This guide covers what sets the charge off, how the amount is worked out, when the money has to move, and who pays less or nothing at all. First home buyers get a discount or an exemption, and so do several other groups, all covered further down.
What Is Stamp Duty in Victoria?
Stamp duty in Victoria is a one-off tax charged by the state government on dutiable transactions. The biggest of those is the transfer of an interest in land. In plain words, a dutiable transaction is a taxable deal, and an interest in land means all or part of a property that you buy. Almost everyone just says stamp duty, and both names describe the same tax.
It is administered and collected by the State Revenue Office Victoria, not the Australian government. That is why every state and territory sets its own rates, thresholds and concessions.
Stamp duty is easy to confuse with land tax and council rates. Land tax is a separate, ongoing state tax on land you own, and council rates are a local government charge for services. Stamp duty is different again, a one-off cost tied to the transaction itself. You pay it once, not every year.
What Triggers Stamp Duty on Your Purchase?
The rates, thresholds and concessions that apply to your purchase are set by the date written on your contract. Not by your settlement date, and not by when you move in. Signing on one side of a threshold change can change what you owe, which is what makes your contract date the one that counts.
Sales are not the only trigger. A dutiable transaction can also be a gift, a transfer made for no money at all, a transfer between related parties, or a transfer out of a deceased estate. Victoria taxes the transfer itself, not just a sale price, which is why several of the exemptions further down the page exist at all.
One more trap. Changing who ends up on the transfer after you have signed can carry duty consequences, which the Victorian rules section below comes back to.
Who Pays Stamp Duty, the Buyer or the Seller?
In Victoria, the buyer pays. The seller contributes nothing.
You budget for stamp duty on top of your deposit and your other settlement costs. It is not netted off the price you agreed on, and the seller’s proceeds are not reduced either.
Your bank does not cover it, though many lenders will let you fund it as part of your home loan instead of finding the cash separately. Borrowed, not avoided. If you have not settled on a lender yet, our conveyancing fee is rebated on home loans over $450,000 arranged through our lending partners.
How Much Stamp Duty Will You Pay?
Stamp duty is calculated on the dutiable value of the transaction, which is whichever is higher: the price you paid, or the property’s market value. That figure then runs through a sliding scale that climbs as the value goes up.
For contracts entered into on or after 1 July 2021, the general land transfer duty rates are these.
| Dutiable value | Duty payable |
| $0 – $25,000 | 1.4% of the dutiable value |
| $25,001 – $130,000 | $350 plus 2.4% of the value over $25,000 |
| $130,001 – $960,000 | $2,870 plus 6% of the value over $130,000 |
| $960,001 – $2,000,000 | 5.5% of the dutiable value |
| More than $2,000,000 | $110,000 plus 6.5% of the value over $2,000,000 |
A lower rate can apply if the property will be your principal place of residence, which just means the home you actually live in. That is the PPR concession, and it applies only up to a dutiable value of $550,000. Above that point the general rates apply in full, with no PPR discount at all.
That $550,000 figure is often confused with the $600,000 threshold. That one belongs to a different concession altogether, for first home buyers and pensioners, covered further down. Two thresholds, two rules.
Using the scale above, duty on a $500,000 property is $2,870 plus 6% of the $370,000 above that lower band, which comes to $25,070. On a $700,000 property it is $2,870 plus 6% of $570,000, or $37,070. Both are general rates. If you are PPR-eligible at or under $550,000 you can pay less than those figures, on a separate concessional scale we have not quoted here.
Work out your own number using our stamp duty calculator before you fall in love with a listing, because the duty does not care how much you want the place.
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Duty has to be paid before the transfer of land can be registered, and in practice that means it is usually paid at settlement. If it is not paid within 30 days of settlement, penalty tax and interest can be added on top of the duty you already owe. Late costs you money.
You do not pay it yourself. Your conveyancer, solicitor or bank normally pays the duty on your behalf through Duties Online, which is one less thing for you to organise.
Your money normally needs to be available at settlement rather than arranged afterwards, and your conveyancer then deals with the duty inside the electronic settlement process.
Your concession rides on this stage too. If one is not claimed correctly when your conveyancer lodges the duty details, you can end up assessed at the full general rate instead. Fixing it later is harder.
Concessions and Exemptions That Reduce What You Pay
Several concessions and exemptions can cut your bill or wipe it out, depending on what you buy and who you buy it with. A concession cuts it. An exemption removes it.
The broadest is the PPR concession, the lower rate scale for owner-occupiers set out in the calculation section above.
Eligible first home buyers get a concession of their own: no duty at all up to $600,000, and a reduced amount from $600,001 to $750,000. For vacant land bought to build a first home only the land’s value counts, and the first home buyer eligibility rules set out whether you qualify.
Pensioner and concession cardholders get a similar deal, once only: an exemption up to $600,000, or a concession up to $750,000, for contracts from 1 July 2023.
Buying off the plan differs again. Buyers can deduct build costs incurred after signing from the dutiable value, up to $750,000 for first home buyers and $550,000 for other owner-occupiers. A temporary version applies to contracts signed from 21 October 2024 and before 21 April 2027. It drops the threshold and covers all buyers, including investors and companies, buying a strata apartment or townhouse.
Spouse or partner transfers for no payment can be fully exempt, subject to a residency requirement you will need to check. A deceased estate transfer made strictly under a will, with no payment involved, can be exempt under section 42 of the Duties Act 2000.
The main concessions compare like this.
| Concession | Who it’s for | What it does | Value limit |
| PPR concession | Owner-occupiers | Lower rate scale | To $550,000 |
| First home buyer | Eligible FHBs | No duty, or reduced | Nil to $600k, cut to $750k |
| Pensioner/concession card | Cardholders, once | Exemption or cut | Nil to $600k, cut to $750k |
| Off-the-plan (standard) | Owner-occupiers | Deducts build costs | $750k (FHB) / $550k (other) |
| Off-the-plan (temporary) | All buyers, strata/townhouse | No threshold | From 21 Oct 2024, before 21 Apr 2027 |
| Spouse/partner transfer | Spouses/partners, no payment | Full exemption | Residency condition |
| Deceased estate (s42) | Beneficiaries | Exemption | No payment, per the will |
When Stamp Duty Costs More Than the Standard Rate
Some buyers pay more. The most common surcharge is foreign purchaser additional duty, an extra charge stacked onto the ordinary duty for buyers who count as foreign purchasers.
For contracts entered into on or after 1 July 2019 the rate is 8% of the dutiable value. That sits on top of the general or concessional rate that would otherwise apply to you. Residential property only.
The trap is realising, sometimes only after you have signed, that you count as a foreign purchaser for duty purposes without knowing it. Your visa status can do it, and so can a company or trust structure. Raise it with your conveyancer before you sign rather than after, because it can add a significant amount to what you finally owe.
Stamp Duty Beyond the Family Home
Not just houses. Stamp duty applies to vacant land or investment property you buy under the same dutiable value rules, and in a different form again to motor vehicles.
Vacant land is dutiable on the value of the land itself, using the same greater-of test set out in the calculation section above.
Investment property gets no principal place of residence concession and no first home buyer relief, because both are tied to living in the home yourself. You pay the full rate.
Commercial and industrial property is moving away from duty altogether. The Commercial and Industrial Property Tax reform commenced on 1 July 2024. It is progressively replacing land transfer duty and landholder duty on qualifying commercial and industrial property with an annual property tax.
Car duty is separate again and sits outside all of this. If you are searching for car stamp duty, this guide does not cover it.
Victorian Rules That Catch Buyers Out
The rate is the easy part. What catches you out is the conditions and the timing, and by the time you find out it can be too late to fix cheaply.
Both the PPR concession and the first home buyer concession are meant for owner-occupiers. They carry conditions about actually living in the property, not just intending to. If your plans change and you do not end up meeting those conditions, the concession itself can be at risk, so tell your conveyancer early. A rate table won’t warn you.
Buying with someone who would not qualify on their own is worth raising before you sign, and a parent going on the title is one example. Check how a concession applies to everyone named on the contract, not just to you.
Nominating a different buyer after you have signed can change the duty position, and so can on-selling your contract before settlement. Either way, ask your conveyancer before you make the change rather than after.
Gifts and family property transfers do not escape duty just because no money changes hands. Dutiable value is still measured the same way, so a property given away for nothing is still assessed at what it is worth. No money moves, duty still does.
All of this is why the contract and Section 32 review stage matters more than the rate table you started with. It is the point where a conveyancer can check which rate, concession or exemption actually applies to your purchase, before you are bound to any of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is stamp duty in Australia?
Stamp duty is a tax charged by state and territory governments, not the federal government, on certain transactions including buying property. Rates and concessions differ across Australia because each state runs its own system. In Victoria it’s called land transfer duty.
Do first home buyers pay stamp duty in Victoria?
Eligible first home buyers pay no duty on a home valued up to $600,000, and a reduced amount from $600,001 to $750,000. Above $750,000 the concession stops. The general rates take over.
What is stamp duty when buying a car?
Motor vehicle duty is a separate duty from land transfer duty, calculated on the vehicle rather than on land. It sits outside the rate scale and concessions covered in this guide.
Is stamp duty being abolished in Victoria?
Not for residential property. Victoria is progressively replacing land transfer duty with the Commercial and Industrial Property Tax, but only for qualifying commercial and industrial property, from 1 July 2024.
What is a stamp duty calculator?
A stamp duty calculator estimates the duty payable on a property from its price and your circumstances. Our Victorian stamp duty calculator is checked against the State Revenue Office’s own calculator, so the figure matches what the SRO would tell you. Pensioner and concession cardholder duty, and unusual company or trust structures, sit outside it, and for those the SRO calculator is the right place to go.
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