Stamp duty in South Australia: what you will actually pay

South Australia charges one rate of stamp duty on a home, and it makes no difference whether you are buying the place to live in or to rent out. Above $500,000 the duty is $21,330 plus $5.50 for every $100 or part of $100 over that line. On a $750,000 purchase that comes to $35,080, due at settlement.

First home buyers can have the entire amount wiped, with no limit on the price, but only on a narrow set of properties. Buy an established house and you get nothing. That distinction causes most of the expensive confusion.

Check these figures before you rely on them. Every number here was read off the RevenueSA website on 21 September 2026. Duty scales and relief rules change at budget time, so confirm the current position at revenuesa.sa.gov.au before you sign.

The rate scale, in full

These are the conveyance rates published by RevenueSA, which apply per $100 or part of $100, so the charge steps up in whole hundreds.

What surprises most people is that there is no owner-occupier scale. An investor buying a $650,000 house in Adelaide and a family buying the identical house next door pay identical duty. Victoria does run a concessional owner-occupier scale at the lower end, so drop that assumption at the border.

At $600,000 the duty works out to $21,330 plus 1,000 lots of $5.50, or $26,830. At $750,000 it is $21,330 plus 2,500 lots of $5.50, or $35,080. Those are workings off the published scale, not an assessment. For the figure to budget on, use RevenueSA's own calculator, which covers first home buyer relief and the foreign ownership surcharge. It does not yet calculate the seniors downsizing relief below.

Duty is charged on the value of the land including improvements, or on the consideration including GST, whichever is greater. That matters when a property changes hands for less than it is worth. It is why transfers between family members need costing early.

First home buyers: full relief, no price cap, new builds only

If you are an eligible first home buyer and you are buying a new home, an off-the-plan apartment, or vacant land to build your home on, you pay no stamp duty at all, and there is no limit to the market value of the property for contracts entered into on or after 6 June 2024. If you are buying an established house, you get nothing.

That second sentence is the one to read twice. RevenueSA lists "the purchase of an established home" among the properties that are not eligible, an established home being one already built and previously occupied or sold as a residence. A first home buyer paying $700,000 for a 1970s house in a settled Adelaide suburb pays the full $32,330.

This catches people who have read Victorian material, because Victoria's first home buyer benefit does cover established homes within its value thresholds. Victoria caps the price and is relaxed about the property type. South Australia does the reverse.

Also outside the relief: investment properties and holiday homes, knock down and rebuild projects, caravans, and non-habitable structures such as sheds.

Who counts as eligible

Every applicant must be at least 18 and a natural person, and at least one must be an Australian citizen, a permanent resident, or a New Zealand citizen in Australia on a Special Category visa. Companies and trusts cannot claim, apart from a Special Disability Trust. The relief is not means tested.

Prior ownership is where applications fall over. For contracts entered into on or after 13 February 2025, you are not eligible if you or your spouse or domestic partner own or have ever owned a residential property in Australia. The old six month occupation carve out is gone. Property owned overseas is not counted, and neither is vacant, commercial or primary production land.

Every applicant also has to live in the home as their principal place of residence for at least six continuous months, starting within 12 months of settlement for a new home or off-the-plan apartment. For vacant land it is within 12 months of when you can lawfully live in the finished home, or 36 months from settlement, whichever comes first.

Your conveyancer normally lodges the application at settlement. If it was missed, you can claim a refund within five years of settlement.

The First Home Owner Grant is a separate application

The grant is not duty relief, and qualifying for one does not mean you qualify for the other. It is up to $15,000 for buying or building a new home, with no value cap for contracts entered into on or after 6 June 2024.

It covers a new home, an off-the-plan apartment, a substantially renovated home bought from a developer, a contract to build, and owner builders. It does not cover an established home or vacant land on its own, though it becomes available once you sign a contract to build. If you need the money at settlement, lodge through an approved agent, usually your lender.

Downsizing at 60 or over

This relief is new enough that most material online predates it. For contracts entered into on or after 25 March 2026, a buyer who sells their principal place of residence and moves to a property on a smaller land size may get relief on a new home, an off-the-plan apartment, or vacant land to build on. At least one applicant has to be 60 or over, so a couple with one partner under 60 is not ruled out on age. Full relief applies where the dutiable value is $2 million or less for a home or apartment, or $1.2 million or less for vacant land, tapering to $2.1 million and $1.3 million respectively. The existing home must be sold within 12 months either side of settlement, or of practical completion where the new home is still being built, and the land size test is real, so a larger block fails it even if the house on it is smaller.

Commercial and industrial property attracts no duty at all

Buying a shop or a warehouse in South Australia usually means no transfer duty. No liability to duty arises on a transfer of an interest in non-residential and non-primary production land, called "qualifying land" in the Stamp Duties Act 1923 (SA), executed on or after 1 July 2018. RevenueSA generally settles this from the Valuer-General's land use code rather than from what you plan to do with the place, so check the code early. Victoria is getting to the same place by a different route and still charges duty when a property first enters its scheme, so do not carry a calculation across the border in either direction.

If anyone on the contract is not a citizen or permanent resident

A foreign person or foreign trust acquiring an interest in residential land in South Australia pays a foreign ownership surcharge of 7% of the value of that interest, on top of ordinary duty, for dutiable instruments executed on or after 1 January 2018. The Commissioner of State Taxation has no discretion to waive it.

The interaction with first home buyer relief is the part that stings. For contracts entered into on or after 13 February 2025, relief is not applied to the surcharge. Your ordinary duty can be wiped in full and you still owe 7%. If anyone on your contract is on a temporary visa, raise it before you sign.

When you pay, and who lodges it

Duty is paid at settlement. Your conveyancer arranges the stamping and lodges the documents at the Lands Titles Office, with duty and registration fees paid from settlement funds. Those registration fees are worked out through Land Services SA's property transfer fee calculator.

South Australian settlement and lodgement run through an electronic workspace rather than across a table, which is why a registered conveyancer can act for you wherever you are. Wise Step Conveyancing is registered in South Australia with Consumer and Business Services and acts for South Australian clients electronically from our office in Cranbourne, Victoria. There is more on the day itself in our guide to settlement in South Australia.

One honest limit. A conveyancer works out and pays the duty on your transaction. Structuring a purchase to change the duty outcome, or advising on trusts, super, tax or estate planning, is work for a solicitor or your accountant, and we will say so rather than guess.

Questions we get asked

I am a first home buyer looking at a $650,000 established house in Adelaide. What do I pay?

Full duty, which on the published scale is $29,580, with no first home relief. The relief only reaches a new home, an off-the-plan apartment, or vacant land you will build on.

Is there really no price limit on first home buyer relief?

For contracts entered into on or after 6 June 2024, no. RevenueSA states plainly that no property cap applies. Read it alongside the property type rule. Unlimited value, very limited property types.

My partner owned a unit years ago. Can I claim on my own?

Almost certainly not, for a contract entered into on or after 13 February 2025. The test looks at you and your partner together, and prior ownership of any residential property in Australia by either of you rules the application out. A former partner you have separated from or divorced is not counted, though you will need evidence. Tell us at the start.

Do I pay stamp duty on a commercial property in South Australia?

Generally no, for transfers executed on or after 1 July 2018. The land use code decides it, so confirm the code before you assume.

Can I get the duty relief and the $15,000 grant on the same purchase?

Often yes, because both aim at new builds, but they are separate applications with separate criteria. We check both when we read your contract.

Send us the contract before you sign it

The duty follows the price and the property type, both locked the moment you sign.

Our office is at Office 4, Level 1, 105A High Street, Cranbourne VIC 3977, open Monday to Friday, and available on weekends by appointment. We are registered in South Australia and handle South Australian property purchases electronically. Send the contract and the Form 1 through and ask us for a quote, or get in touch if you would rather talk it through first.

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