First home buyer stamp duty in Victoria: the thresholds, the grant, and the conditions people miss

A Victorian first home buyer pays no stamp duty at all when the dutiable value of the property is $600,000 or less. Between $600,001 and $750,000 you pay a reduced amount. Past $750,000 the first home buyer benefit stops, and you pay the ordinary rate like every other buyer. Those three lines decide most of what a first home purchase in this corridor costs. Here is what sits behind them.

Check the figures before you rely on them. Every number below was read off the State Revenue Office website on 21 September 2026. Thresholds and grant amounts get changed at budget time and sometimes in between, so a post that was right in September can be wrong by March. Confirm the current position at sro.vic.gov.au before you sign anything.

The first home buyer duty exemption and concession

Those thresholds come straight from the SRO's first home buyer duty page, updated 15 September 2026. The benefit covers a new home, an established home, or vacant land you intend to build on.

To qualify, the SRO requires that every purchaser is a natural person aged at least 18, that at least one purchaser is an Australian citizen, a New Zealand citizen or a permanent resident, and that you are buying the place to live in yourself.

Then come the disqualifiers. You are out if you have already received a First Home Owner Grant or a first home buyer duty exemption or concession. You are also out if you owned a residential home in Australia before 1 July 2000, or if you owned and occupied a home in Australia for a continuous period of at least six months on or after 1 July 2000.

Those tests look at your spouse or partner as well as you, so if the person you are buying with owned and lived in a unit in Hampton Park in 2014, neither of you gets the benefit. People often find this out after the contract is signed.

What the $750,000 line means in Cranbourne and Clyde North

This is not a sliding scale that fades out gently. It is a cliff.

Say you are buying a four bedroom house in Clyde North and you agree on $755,000. You are $5,000 over the line, so the first home buyer benefit is gone entirely and the general rate applies. On the general rate table, dutiable values above $130,000 and up to $960,000 are charged $2,870 plus 6% of the value above $130,000. So $2,870 plus 6% of $625,000 gives $40,370.

At $748,000 you would have been inside the concession and paying a reduced amount instead. That is a large difference for a $7,000 gap in price, and worth knowing before you put a number on an offer or set your limit at a Saturday auction. When we read the contract on a first home property purchase, we will tell you exactly where the price sits against that threshold.

The First Home Owner Grant is $10,000, and only for new homes

The grant is a $10,000 payment for a newly constructed or never-occupied property valued up to $750,000. For an off-the-plan purchase, that $750,000 refers to the contract price.

A home someone has already lived in does not qualify, however cheap it is. The SRO's test is that the home is new and not previously sold, occupied as a home, leased out or used for short-term accommodation. Substantially renovated homes and homes built to replace a demolished one can also count. So a first home buyer picking up a 1990s brick veneer in Cranbourne East gets the duty exemption if the value is under $600,000, but nothing from the grant. A house and land contract in Clyde North or Cranbourne West can usually clear both.

The same page sets out the conditions. Every applicant must be at least 18 at settlement or completion of construction. At least one applicant must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident at the relevant date, and for settlements on or after 26 November 2025 New Zealand citizens are eligible whether or not they hold a special category visa. You cannot have received the grant anywhere in Australia before, owned residential property in Australia before 1 July 2000, or lived for at least six continuous months in a home you or your partner owned on or after 1 July 2000.

Most people never lodge the grant form themselves. Your bank or credit union usually lodges it as an approved agent, which is how the money arrives in time for settlement or a first progress payment. If nobody is lodging for you, you can apply directly to the SRO within 12 months of settlement or completing construction, and the SRO reviews applications within 10 working days.

The residence requirement, which is a real condition and not a formality

Both the duty benefit and the grant are conditional on you actually moving in and staying.

For the duty exemption or concession, at least one purchaser has to occupy the home as their principal place of residence and live there for 12 continuous months within 12 months of settlement. Buying vacant land shifts the clock: you must move in by the earlier of 12 months from when the occupancy certificate is issued, or 36 months from the settlement date.

For the grant, at least one applicant must occupy the home as their principal place of residence for at least 12 months, starting within 12 months of settlement or construction finishing.

If your circumstances change and you cannot meet the requirement, you have to tell the SRO. The obligation is to notify within 30 days of the change, and the assessment gets reworked. A job transfer to Geelong nine months in is a real problem, not something to quietly ignore.

If you are not a first home buyer: the $550,000 concession

There is a separate principal place of residence concession for buyers who have owned before. It applies where the dutiable value is up to $550,000, with these rates:

You have to move in within 12 months of settlement and live there for 12 straight months. Where two or more people buy together, at least one of you must live there.

Above $550,000 the concession does not apply at all, so check your dutiable value against the ceiling rather than assuming it helps.

Off the plan changes the maths, and the window closes in 2027

The off-the-plan concession works by subtracting construction costs incurred after you sign your contract from the property's contract price. The SRO's own worked example: a $620,000 apartment with $465,000 of construction costs has a dutiable value of $155,000.

That is why signing early in a build can put a first home buyer under the $600,000 exemption line on a property that sells for well above it. Sign late, when most of the construction is done, and there is far less to deduct.

A temporary version of the concession is running as well. It applies to strata subdivision lots including apartments, units and townhouses, for contracts entered into on or after 21 October 2024 and before 21 April 2027. There is no value threshold, and it is open to all purchasers including investors, companies and trusts. You do not need to be a first home buyer or live in the property.

Off-the-plan contracts carry risks of their own, particularly sunset clauses and changes to the plan between signing and registration. Read the contract and section 32 properly before you sign.

One more surcharge worth checking before you sign

If a purchaser is a foreign purchaser, an additional 8% duty applies for contracts entered into on or after 1 July 2019, on top of ordinary land transfer duty. Visa status at the contract date is what matters, and 8% of a $700,000 purchase is $56,000 before you count the ordinary duty. If anyone on your contract is on a temporary visa, or their permanent residency is still being processed, raise it with us early.

If your purchase involves a trust, a company, a self-managed super fund or a deceased estate, the duty position gets complicated quickly. That is territory for a solicitor or your accountant, and we will tell you so rather than guess.

Questions we get asked

Do I pay stamp duty on a $650,000 house in Cranbourne as a first home buyer?

You pay a reduced amount, not nothing. A dutiable value of $650,000 sits inside the $600,001 to $750,000 concession band, so duty is scaled down rather than wiped out. We can work out the exact figure once we see the contract.

Can I get the First Home Owner Grant and the duty exemption at the same time?

Yes, if the property qualifies for both. The grant needs a new or never-occupied home valued up to $750,000, while the duty exemption needs a dutiable value of $600,000 or less. A house and land package in Clyde North often clears both tests because vacant land is assessed on the land alone, without the value of your building contract.

My partner owned a house before we met. Can I still claim as a first home buyer?

Almost certainly not. The eligibility test looks at you and your spouse or partner together. If either of you owned a residential home in Australia before 1 July 2000, or owned and occupied one for at least six continuous months on or after that date, the benefit is unavailable to both of you. Tell us at the start so nobody budgets for a benefit that will not arrive.

Who actually lodges the duty exemption?

We do, as part of the conveyancing. The SRO says your conveyancer or solicitor will usually apply for the benefit when they complete the property transfer, which happens through the Digital Duties Form with the contract and title details attached. If you are eligible, the exemption or concession is applied automatically.

When is the duty actually paid?

At settlement. Duty is settled as part of the electronic settlement through PEXA, along with the balance of the purchase price and the adjustments for rates and water. We walk you through the full figure well before the day.

Talk to us before you sign, not after

Get advice while the contract is still unsigned. Once you sign, the duty follows the price and your options narrow.

Our office is on High Street in Cranbourne, a few minutes from most of the estates we work in around Clyde North and Cranbourne East. Send us the contract and the section 32 before you commit. We will read them properly and tell you where you sit against the current thresholds. You can get in touch here or ask us for a quote. Happy to answer a question by phone even if you are months away from buying.

This article is general information about Victorian conveyancing and is not legal advice for your particular transaction. Speak to us about your specific circumstances.