Preparing financially
First-home buyer duty concessions and grants outside Victoria
How first-home-buyer duty relief actually works in NSW, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, the ACT and the NT — seven genuinely different structures, from a fixed threshold to an uncapped income-tested scheme to two non-combinable cash grants.
- Every state and territory sets its own first-home-buyer duty relief independently — the structures differ, not just the numbers.
- The ACT's concession has had no price cap at all since 1 July 2026 — the most generous duty structure of any Australian jurisdiction by that measure.
- South Australia's relief amount and property cap depend on your contract date and aren't published as one current figure — confirm directly with RevenueSA.
- The Northern Territory has no duty concession at all — its benefit is two non-combinable cash grants, FreshStart and HomeGrown Territory.
- Tasmania's $750,000 established-home duty exemption ended on 30 June 2026 with no replacement announced — a first-home buyer there now pays ordinary duty on an established home, though the separate cash grant continues.
- Most of these thresholds and grant amounts have changed at least once in the last few years — don't rely on a figure from an old article or another buyer's experience.
Why this isn't one national rule
Land transfer duty is a state and territory tax, not a federal one — each jurisdiction sets its own first-home-buyer relief independently, on its own schedule. The structures aren't just different numbers on the same template: some are a fixed price threshold, one has no price cap at all, one genuinely can't quote you a figure without knowing your contract date, and one delivers the benefit as two separate cash grants instead of duty relief. This page covers the seven states and territories other than Victoria — for Victoria's own duty exemption and concession, in the same depth as the sections below, see the Victorian first-home buyer duty exemption and concession guide.
New South Wales
The First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme gives eligible buyers a full transfer duty exemption on a new or existing home valued up to $800,000 (Revenue NSW, verified 31 Jul 2026), with a concessional rate on a sliding scale above that up to just under $1,000,000 — and a separate, lower pair of thresholds for vacant land. These exact figures have moved before: for contracts exchanged from August 2021 to June 2023, the exemption threshold was $650,000, not the current figure (Revenue NSW, verified 31 Jul 2026) — a reminder to confirm the threshold for your actual contract date with Revenue NSW rather than trusting a number you saw somewhere else. Separately, NSW also runs a First Home Owner Grant of $10,000 (Revenue NSW, verified 31 Jul 2026) for a new home — a different scheme with its own, lower price cap, not a top-up to the duty exemption above.
Queensland
Queensland runs two separate first-home concessions, and which one applies depends on whether the home is new. The first home concession applies to any first home, established or new: for contracts from 9 June 2024, it deducts up to $17,350 from the ordinary home-concession duty rate, phasing out to no additional benefit once the price reaches $800,000 (Queensland Revenue Office, verified 8 Aug 2026). The first home (new home) concession is more generous but narrower — for contracts dated 1 May 2025 or later, it's a full duty exemption with no price cap at all, but only for a new or substantially renovated home, and additional citizenship/residency criteria apply from 1 August 2026 (Queensland Revenue Office, verified 8 Aug 2026). Queensland's First Home Owner Grant, at $30,000 (Queensland Revenue Office, verified 7 Aug 2026), is the largest headline cash grant of any state — again a separate scheme from either duty concession above.
Western Australia
WA's First Home Owner Rate of duty was increased recently: effective 7 May 2026, eligible first-home buyers pay no duty at all up to $600,000 (RevenueWA (Dept of Treasury and Finance, WA), verified 8 Aug 2026), with a concessional rate up to $800,000 — thresholds that now apply uniformly across the state, unlike the Perth-metro-versus-regional split WA used before this change. This is separate from WA's First Home Owner Grant of $10,000 (WA Department of Finance, verified 31 Jul 2026) for a new home — check both, since qualifying for the duty rate doesn't automatically mean you qualify for the grant's own new-home requirement.
South Australia
South Australia is the one state on this page that genuinely can't be reduced to a single dollar figure here. Its stamp duty relief for eligible first-home buyers — covering a new home, an off-the-plan apartment, or vacant land you'll build on — reduces or removes duty at settlement, but the exact relief amount and property-value cap depend on your specific contract date and aren't published as one current figure (RevenueSA, verified 7 Aug 2026); confirm the cap that applies to your contract date directly with RevenueSA before budgeting around it. One genuinely useful, easy-to-miss detail: if you settled without the relief being applied — for example because your conveyancer didn't claim it — you can generally still claim a refund within 5 years of settlement. SA's First Home Owner Grant, up to $15,000 (RevenueSA, verified 7 Aug 2026), is the separate cash-grant scheme alongside this relief.
Tasmania
Tasmania's full duty exemption for first-home buyers of an established home (up to $750,000) has ended — it applied only to purchases settling between 18 February 2024 and 30 June 2026, and is not available for a settlement after that date (State Revenue Office Tasmania, verified 8 Aug 2026). No replacement or extension had been announced as of this page's last check, so a first-home buyer of an established home in Tasmania today pays Tasmania's ordinary conveyance duty (State Revenue Office Tasmania, verified 7 Aug 2026) — the same rate scale that applies to any other buyer. This is exactly the kind of figure worth double-checking directly with the SRO before you rely on it: the scheme existed, was genuinely generous while it ran (it had risen sharply from $400,000 in 2018 to $750,000 by its final period), and a search result, an older article or a friend's experience from a few months ago may still describe it as current when it no longer is. Tasmania's First Home Owner Grant is a separate, still-current scheme: currently $20,000 (State Revenue Office Tasmania, verified 31 Jul 2026) for the 2026-27 window specifically — it was $10,000 the year before that and $30,000 the year before that, so always check the amount for your actual contract date rather than assuming this year's figure was last year's too.
Australian Capital Territory
The ACT's Home Buyer Concession Scheme is the most generous duty concession of any Australian jurisdiction by one measure: from 1 July 2026, it removed its property value limit entirely — eligible buyers pay zero conveyance duty regardless of the purchase price, subject to income and dependent-child thresholds rather than a price cap (ACT Revenue Office, verified 31 Jul 2026). That's a real change from the scheme's own prior-year structure, which was capped: for transactions between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026, duty was fully waived only up to $1,020,000, with a partial concession between $1,020,000 and $1,455,000. The ACT doesn't run a separate cash First Home Owner Grant — this duty concession is the benefit.
Northern Territory
The NT doesn't offer first-home buyers a duty concession at all — its incentive comes entirely as cash grants, and currently there are two, with different eligibility and no overlap allowed. FreshStart pays $30,000 (Territory Revenue Office (NT Department of Treasury and Finance), verified 7 Aug 2026) to buy or build a new home and, unusually, doesn't require you to be a first-home owner. HomeGrown Territory pays $50,000 (Territory Revenue Office (NT Department of Treasury and Finance), verified 7 Aug 2026) specifically to first-home buyers building or buying a new home, with no price cap — but the two grants can't be combined on the same home, so check which one actually pays more for your situation rather than assuming the larger headline figure always applies to you. Both run on contracts signed between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2027. A related $10,000 HomeGrown Territory grant for established homes has already closed — it only covered contracts signed before 1 October 2025 (Territory Revenue Office (NT Department of Treasury and Finance), verified 7 Aug 2026) — so don't plan around an established-home grant that no longer exists.
At a glance
| State/territory | How the benefit works |
|---|---|
| ACT | Duty concession, uncapped since 1 July 2026 (income/dependent-child tested) |
| New South Wales | Duty exemption to $800,000, concession to just under $1,000,000, plus a separate $10,000 new-home grant |
| Northern Territory | No duty concession — two non-combinable cash grants instead ($30,000 or $50,000) |
| Queensland | Two-tier duty concession (any first home vs. new-home-only, uncapped) plus a $30,000 grant |
| South Australia | Duty relief, amount/cap depends on contract date — confirm directly — plus a grant up to $15,000 |
| Tasmania | No current duty exemption — the $750,000 scheme ended 30 June 2026 with no replacement announced — plus a grant that changes size year to year |
| Western Australia | Duty exemption to $600,000, concession to $800,000 (increased May 2026), plus a $10,000 grant |
Practical checklist
Before you rely on a figure from this page
- Confirm the exact current threshold or relief amount for your state directly with its revenue office, for your specific contract date
- Check whether the state's duty concession and its First Home Owner Grant (or equivalent) are separate schemes with separate eligibility, as they usually are
- If you're comparing states, don't assume the same structure applies — some are fixed thresholds, some are uncapped, one depends on your contract date
- Ask your conveyancer to confirm eligibility and the exact figure before you rely on it in your budget
Questions for a professional
- What is the exact duty concession or exemption I qualify for, for this specific contract date and property?
- Do I also qualify for a First Home Owner Grant (or equivalent) on top of this, and is it a separate application?
- If my circumstances or the property change before settlement, does that affect my eligibility?
Official resources
- Revenue NSW: First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme
- Queensland Revenue Office: home concession
- WA: First Home Owner Rate of duty
- RevenueSA: stamp duty relief
- State Revenue Office Tasmania: first home buyers
- ACT Revenue Office: Home Buyer Concession Scheme
- NT Territory Revenue Office: home grants
Sources and methodology
- First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme — Revenue NSW (retrieved 31 Jul 2026)
- First Home Owner (New Homes) Grant — Revenue NSW (retrieved 31 Jul 2026)
- Transfer duty home concession rates | Queensland Revenue Office — Queensland Revenue Office (retrieved 8 Aug 2026)
- First home (new home) concession | Queensland Revenue Office — Queensland Revenue Office (retrieved 8 Aug 2026)
- First home owner grant — eligibility — Queensland Revenue Office (retrieved 31 Jul 2026)
- Duties Fact Sheet - First Home Owner Rate | Western Australian Government — RevenueWA (Dept of Treasury and Finance, WA) (retrieved 8 Aug 2026)
- First home owner grant — WA Department of Finance (retrieved 31 Jul 2026)
- Stamp Duty Relief for Eligible First Home Buyers — RevenueSA (retrieved 7 Aug 2026)
- First Home Owner Grant — RevenueSA (retrieved 7 Aug 2026)
- First home buyers of established homes duty relief | State Revenue Office Tasmania — State Revenue Office Tasmania (retrieved 8 Aug 2026)
- Rates of duty | State Revenue Office Tasmania — State Revenue Office Tasmania (retrieved 7 Aug 2026)
- First Home Owner Grant — eligibility — State Revenue Office Tasmania (retrieved 31 Jul 2026)
- About the Home Buyer Concession Scheme — ACT Revenue Office (retrieved 31 Jul 2026)
- HomeGrown Territory — guide to the grants — Territory Revenue Office (NT Department of Treasury and Finance) (retrieved 7 Aug 2026)
Figures on this page are drawn from Delora's local knowledge graph, refreshed from these primary sources and checked for changes on a regular schedule. If a figure here looks out of date, the official source above is always the authority — please let us know.