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Kooky
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About Kooky and Shaka →Transfer duty, still called stamp duty by nearly everyone, is the largest single cost of buying a home after the price itself. For a first buyer in Queensland it can also be nothing at all. Which of those applies depends on three things: whether the home is new or has been lived in, what it costs, and whether the buyer meets a list of personal conditions that is stricter than most people expect.
Queensland has three duty concessions aimed at first buyers. One covers existing homes and is capped by price. One covers new homes and has no price cap. One covers vacant land on which a first home will be built. A fourth, the general home concession, is open to any owner occupier and is what a first buyer falls back on above the cap. All four are run by the Queensland Revenue Office, and every figure in this guide is taken from its published pages and rate tables.
This guide sets out what each concession is worth, where the thresholds sit, who can claim, the rules about living in the home, and the citizenship test that applies to transactions entered into from 1 August 2026.
Queensland Revenue Office, first home concession and first home (new home) concession pages.
How duty is charged before any concession
Duty is charged on the dutiable value of the property, which is normally the price. The Revenue Office's general rates rise in steps. Nothing is charged on the first $5,000. From $75,000 to $540,000 the duty is $1,050 plus $3.50 for each $100 over $75,000. From $540,000 to $1 million it is $17,325 plus $4.50 for each $100 over $540,000. Above $1 million it is $38,025 plus $5.75 for each $100 over $1 million.
Related readHelp to Buy opens 10,000 new places, with Queensland third for demandOn those rates, a $700,000 purchase attracts $24,525 in duty: $17,325, plus $7,200 on the $160,000 above $540,000. That is what an investor pays, and it is the figure every home concession is measured against.
A person buying a home to live in, first buyer or not, can claim the home concession. It replaces the general rate on the first $350,000 with a flat $1 for each $100. The Revenue Office's concession rate table then runs $3,500 plus $3.50 per $100 between $350,000 and $540,000, $10,150 plus $4.50 per $100 between $540,000 and $1 million, and $30,850 plus $5.75 per $100 above that. The most it can save is $7,175, a figure the office states and that the two tables confirm: $17,325 less $10,150.
The first home concessions sit on top of that. They start from the home concession rates and take a further amount off.
Existing homes: the first home concession
The first home concession applies to a home that has been lived in before. Its two thresholds have been in place since 9 June 2024, when the Revenue Office records that they were changed.
Up to $700,000, a first buyer pays no duty. The concession amount for any home priced under $710,000 is $17,350, which is exactly the home concession duty on $700,000, so the two cancel. The saving against the general rate is $24,525, which the office gives as the maximum the concession can be worth.
Two examples show the range below the first threshold. On a $500,000 unit, the general rates would charge $15,925, which is $1,050 plus $3.50 per $100 on the $425,000 above $75,000, and the first buyer pays none of it. On a $700,000 house the whole $24,525 is waived. Just above the threshold the concession still covers nearly everything: at $705,000 the home concession duty is $17,575, the concession is still $17,350, and the buyer pays $225.
Related readHelp to Buy: the federal shared equity scheme and its Queensland capsAt $800,000 and above, the concession amount is nil. The buyer pays the home concession rate like any other owner occupier. The Revenue Office's example is a home at $850,000, on which the duty is $24,100.
Between the two, the concession shrinks in ten steps of $10,000. Each step removes $1,735 of concession.
Computed from the Queensland Revenue Office home concession rates and first home concession amounts for contracts signed from 9 June 2024. The $730,000 figure matches the office's own example.
Why the last $100,000 is so expensive
The chart shows something the two headline thresholds hide. Between $700,000 and $800,000, duty does not rise at the ordinary rate of $4.50 per $100. It rises much faster, because every $10,000 of extra price does two things at once.
It adds $450 of ordinary duty, which is $4.50 per $100 on $10,000. And it removes $1,735 of concession. Together that is $2,185 for each $10,000 step, the same gap that separates each pair of neighbouring bands. Over the whole range, a buyer who pays $800,000 and not $700,000 hands over $21,850 in duty on the extra $100,000.
The concession amounts change at each $10,000 mark, not smoothly. A home at $719,000 and one at $710,000 carry the same concession, $15,615, and differ only by the ordinary duty on $9,000. A home at $720,000 drops to the next amount, $13,880. So the price points just under each $10,000 mark are the efficient ones, and a negotiation that ends a few hundred dollars over a mark costs more in duty than it appears to.
The Revenue Office attaches one condition to this band in particular. For a home valued from $700,001 to $799,999, the buyer must pay market value. The page gives no reason for the condition. Its effect is that a price set below what the home is worth cannot be used to slip under a threshold.
Related readLenders mortgage insurance, and how a guarantee replaces itNew homes: no duty, whatever the price
A first buyer of a new home is under a different concession with a much simpler result. For contracts dated 1 May 2025 or later, the first home (new home) concession reduces the duty to nil. The Revenue Office's page says in terms that "there is no value cap for the home and residential land attributed to the home".
Its example is a new home bought for $1,230,000, on which the duty is $0. At the general rates the same purchase would attract $51,250, and at the home concession rate $44,075. That is the size of the difference between buying new and buying established above $1 million.
A new home, for this purpose, is one that "has not been previously occupied or sold as a place of residence". A substantially renovated home also counts, on two conditions: the sale is a taxable supply of new residential premises under the goods and services tax law, and the renovated home has not been lived in or sold as a residence since. The buyer has to supply a statement from the vendor as evidence. Residential off-the-plan purchases are excused from that requirement.
There is one limit. The exemption covers the home and the residential land that goes with it. If the property includes extra land that is not residential, duty is charged on that part. The Revenue Office's example is a property worth $1,750,000, of which $1,000,000 is the home and its land and $750,000 is other land: the duty is $43,125.
A new home can also attract the First Home Owner Grant, which the Revenue Office administers under separate rules. The grant is $30,000 and is limited to new homes valued under $750,000. Below that value a first buyer of a new home may therefore receive the grant and pay no duty; above it, the duty relief continues alone. The office notes on its concession pages that the two have separate eligibility, so qualifying for one does not settle the other.
Related readPalm Island rent-to-buy scheme opens to its first ten householdsThe Treasurer's statement on the State Budget, published on 23 June 2026, gives the take-up. More than 3,500 Queenslanders had used the new home relief since May 2025, saving more than $66 million, and the Government values it at more than $60 million a year.
Vacant land for a first home
The third concession covers a buyer who purchases a block and builds. Since 1 May 2025, no duty is payable on residential vacant land bought for a first home, and the Revenue Office's examples show a nil result at $350,000, at $500,000 and at $750,000. As with new homes, any non-residential portion is charged: a $952,000 purchase made up of $802,000 of residential land and $150,000 of other land attracts $6,750.
The rule has changed twice in recent years, and the date of the contract decides which version applies to a purchase.
| Period | Largest concession | Land value limit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 July 2012 to 8 June 2024 | $7,175 | Under $400,000 |
| 9 June 2024 to 30 April 2025 | $10,675 | Under $500,000 |
| From 1 May 2025 | All duty on residential land | None |
Queensland Revenue Office, first home vacant land concession page.
The conditions are tighter than for a finished home. The land must have no building on it when it is acquired. The buyer must build one residence only, and must build it, move in with their belongings and live there within two years of settlement. The Revenue Office says that period cannot be extended. A buyer whose build is delayed beyond two years loses the concession, whatever the cause of the delay.
Who can claim
The personal conditions are almost the same across the three first home concessions. The buyer must:
- acquire the property as an individual. Companies cannot claim, and most trustees cannot;
- be at least 18;
- never have held an interest in a residence anywhere in the world;
- never have claimed the first home vacant land concession before;
- move in within the time allowed and live there as their home.
The third condition is the one that surprises people, and it differs from the First Home Owner Grant. The grant looks at whether an applicant or spouse has owned a home in Australia and lived in it. The duty concession asks whether the buyer has ever held an interest in a residence anywhere, in Australia or overseas. A buyer who once owned a share of a flat in another country, or was on the title of a family home for a period, needs to check that history against the Revenue Office's eligibility tester before assuming the concession applies.
Related readQueensland Budget keeps the $30,000 first home grant for four more yearsThe price cap is also different. The grant stops at a value of $750,000. The new home concession has no cap, and the existing home concession runs to $800,000. A buyer can easily qualify for duty relief and not for the grant.
The citizenship test from 1 August 2026
The State Budget of 23 June 2026 added one condition, and it begins this week. For transactions entered into from 1 August 2026, the buyer must be an Australian citizen, a permanent resident or what the Revenue Office calls a specified foreign retiree. The condition applies to the home concession, the first home concession, the new home concession and the vacant land concession alike.
The test follows the date the transaction is entered into
The Revenue Office applies the citizenship condition to transactions entered into from 1 August 2026. It says the condition does not apply to earlier transactions.
The office's concession pages do not spell out who a specified foreign retiree is, so a buyer who thinks they may fall into that group needs the definition from the office itself. For everyone else the test is simple. Citizens and permanent residents are unaffected. A buyer who is neither cannot claim any of the four concessions for a transaction entered into from that date, which leaves the general rates.
A separate charge already applies to some of the same buyers. The Revenue Office's rates page records an additional duty of 8 per cent on acquisitions of residential land by foreign persons. Who counts as a foreign person for that charge is a different question from who meets the new condition, and the two should not be assumed to line up.
Living in the home: the rules after settlement
A concession is given on a promise about the future, and the Revenue Office sets out what the promise covers.
Related readFirst-buyer applications down 22.6% in Queensland as rates rise againFor a finished home, new or existing, the buyer must move in within one year of settlement, and that year cannot be extended. Before moving in, the buyer cannot sell or transfer the property, and cannot lease it, rent it or give anyone exclusive possession of any part of it.
After moving in, the buyer must go on living there, and for the first year cannot rent out the whole property. Renting part of it is allowed. Since 10 September 2024, a first buyer who has moved in can let a room and keep the concession, and the office illustrates the point with a buyer who lets a room to a friend two months after moving in. Selling or transferring within the first year can leave the buyer with a partial concession only.
Homes bought with a tenant in place have their own rule. The existing tenant must leave within six months of settlement, or when the lease expires if that is earlier.
Knocking the house down first forfeits the concession
A buyer who demolishes the home without first living in it does not keep the first home concession, according to the Revenue Office. The concession is for a home the buyer occupies.
Where a property is partly a home and partly something else, such as a shop with a dwelling above it, the concession applies only to the residential part.
When plans change
A buyer who cannot keep to the conditions is expected to tell the Revenue Office. The office lists the events that trigger this: not moving in on time, selling or transferring before moving in or within a year after, and leasing the whole property before moving in or within that first year. The form for the purpose is the reassessment form, D2.4.
Related readQueensland first-buyer loans slip to 5,646 as their average size jumpsThe office then reassesses the duty. Depending on the event, the concession may be withdrawn in full or in part, and the duty that was not charged becomes payable. Because the first home concession can be worth up to $24,525 on an existing home, and far more on a costly new one, the sum involved can be large.
The usual causes are ordinary ones: a job in another city, a separation, a build that overruns. None of them is unusual. What the rules do not allow for is saying nothing.
Putting the pieces together
The same first buyer can meet very different duty bills depending on a handful of choices. Taking the Revenue Office's rates and examples:
- An existing home at $650,000: no duty.
- An existing home at $730,000: $6,555.
- An existing home at $850,000: $24,100, the home concession only.
- A new home at $1,230,000: no duty.
- A block of residential land at $500,000, built on and occupied within two years: no duty.
Three questions sort most cases. Is the home new, or land to build on, or has it been lived in? If it has been lived in, is the price under $700,000, between $700,000 and $800,000, or above? And does the buyer meet the personal conditions, including never having held an interest in a home anywhere and, from 1 August 2026, the citizenship test?
The answers are worth having before an offer is made, not after. In the band between $700,000 and $800,000 in particular, the duty changes by $2,185 with each $10,000 of price, so the price a buyer agrees to and the duty that follows are best worked out together. The Revenue Office publishes a calculator and an eligibility tester for that purpose, and its figures, not a rule of thumb, are what the conveyancer or solicitor handling the purchase will work from.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
