Stamp duty calculator.

Stamp duty — formally called transfer duty in most jurisdictions — is the largest upfront tax most Australians ever pay. It's a state and territory tax, not a federal one, which means the rate, the brackets, and the concessions you qualify for depend entirely on where the property sits.

Five inputs do almost all the work: the purchase price, the state or territory, whether you're a first-home buyer, whether you intend to live in the property, and whether you're a foreign buyer. Each state has its own duty schedule — usually a sliding scale that rises through several brackets. Owner-occupiers and first-home buyers attract concessions; investors and foreign purchasers attract surcharges, and in some states the surcharge is severe.

There is no national first-home stamp duty rule. New South Wales offers a full exemption up to a threshold, a partial concession in a band above that, then full duty. Victoria, Queensland, and the others each set their own thresholds and conditions. Most schemes require you to occupy the property as your principal place of residence for a minimum period, and most apply to established homes under a price cap. The calculator applies the headline state schedule; concession logic reflects the rules in effect for that state at the time of the last update.

Stamp duty is the largest line in your settlement cost, but it is not the only one. Mortgage registration fees, transfer registration fees, lender legals, your own conveyancing, building and pest inspections, and — if you are a foreign buyer — FIRB application fees all sit alongside. Budget for those separately. The duty number is the duty number; the rest of settlement is its own arithmetic.