Canberra deleted stamp duty for first home buyers on 1 July 2026. Not trimmed. Deleted. It headlines the biggest single-day reshuffle of home buyer rules Australia has seen in years, and what it's worth to you depends almost entirely on your postcode.
The takeaway up front: the states handed first home buyers thousands of dollars in upfront savings at the exact moment rising rates thinned the auction crowd. Move before it refills. You collect both advantages at once.
The backdrop is a rising-rate market. The RBA lifted the cash rate three times in 2026, to 4.35%, then held it in June. Next decision: Tuesday 11 August 2026. Buyers noticed. Cotality's June 2026 figures show auction clearance rates in the low 40s and national values down 0.4% for the month, which means fewer bidders beside you on auction day and more room to negotiate. A quieter market plus fresh concessions is a rare pairing.
What changed for home buyers on 1 July 2026?
Four changes landed at once, and a fifth is weeks away.
The ACT abolished first home buyer stamp duty entirely. An Australian first, and the headline act. More on it below.
Help to Buy grew by 10,000 places and gained income caps. From 1 July 2026, the federal shared-equity scheme caps eligibility at $103,000 for singles and $165,000 for couples.
NSW announced changes to its build-to-rent settings, aimed at pulling more rental supply into the pipeline, though details were still being finalised. Indirect for buyers, yes. But with national vacancy near 1.6%, anything that eases rents helps deposits grow, and NSW's 2026-27 Budget also continued the existing First Home Owner (New Home) Grant: $10,000 for first home buyers purchasing a new home up to $600,000, or a house-and-land package up to $750,000.
Queensland started a countdown. From 1 August 2026, temporary residents lose access to Queensland's first home buyer duty concessions. Citizens and permanent residents keep them, including abolished duty on new builds with no price cap.
Earlier in your research? Start with our first home buyer guide for 2026, then come back for the state detail.
The ACT deleted the tax. All of it.
Until 30 June, the ACT ran an income-tested concession for first home buyers. Earn too much as a couple and you paid full duty, roughly $20,000 on a $760,000 townhouse in Gungahlin. From 1 July, it's gone.
Other states discount the tax. The ACT stopped charging it.
Follow the chain. Abolition killed the income test, so dual-income couples who used to wear the full cost are the biggest winners. They buy higher. So competition in Canberra's $700,000-to-$1-million bracket will likely firm through spring, which makes the quiet winter window worth more than the concession itself if that's your bracket.
One more stack. The ACT's price cap under the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme (formerly the First Home Guarantee) sits at $1 million, so zero duty plus a 5% deposit pathway takes the upfront cost of a first Canberra home to its lowest point in decades.
Help to Buy grew, and got harder to enter
Help to Buy is the federal shared-equity scheme: the government takes a stake of up to 30% or 40% in your home, shrinking the loan you have to service. It launched on 5 December 2025. From 1 July 2026 it gained 10,000 extra places and income caps: $103,000 single, $165,000 joint.
Two doors moved in opposite directions. Extra places widen access for lower-income buyers, while the caps close the scheme to plenty of dual-income couples who had been waiting for this round.
Worth knowing before you plan around it: the scheme's lender panel is CBA, Bank Australia and, since late July 2026, the Teachers Mutual Bank group (writing through brokers from 6 October 2026), with the panel expanding through 2026, so product choice inside Help to Buy is thin for now. Over the income cap? The 5% Deposit Scheme dropped its income caps and place limits from 1 October 2025 and is the natural fallback. Our Help to Buy explainer covers eligibility in depth, and our scheme comparison lines up all three federal pathways side by side.
What changed in your state?
| State / Territory | The change | In force |
|---|---|---|
| ACT | All first home buyer stamp duty abolished (an Australian first) | 1 July 2026 |
| NSW | FHB duty exemption to $800,000 continues; $10,000 First Home Owner (New Home) Grant continued (new homes to $600,000, house-and-land to $750,000); build-to-rent changes announced | 1 July 2026 |
| QLD | FHB duty on new builds abolished, no price cap; temporary residents excluded from FHB concessions | Exclusion from 1 August 2026 |
| WA | FHB duty exemption on established homes to $600,000; concession to $800,000 | 7 May 2026 (already live) |
| SA | No duty for FHBs on new homes and vacant land — fully uncapped | Continuing |
| VIC | Off-the-plan duty concession extended | Through to April 2027 |
Two traps hide in that table. WA's change took effect on 7 May 2026, so it's live now rather than new from July, and Queensland's exclusion gives temporary-resident buyers until 1 August 2026 to sign a contract under the current rules. Duty settings shift more often than most buyers realise; our stamp duty guide tracks the current rules in each state.
What do the changes add up to in dollars?
Meet Keira, a physiotherapist on $98,000, and Dan, a project manager on $105,000: first home buyers eyeing that $760,000 townhouse in Gungahlin, in Canberra's north.
Before 1 July 2026: a combined $203,000 put them over the ACT's old concession test, so roughly $20,000 in duty sat on top of their deposit. The $165,000 joint cap ruled out Help to Buy too.
From 1 July 2026: stamp duty is $0. The 5% Deposit Scheme carries no income cap, and the ACT's $1 million price cap clears their townhouse easily, so a $38,000 deposit could get them in with the government guarantee standing in for LMI.
The shift: roughly $20,000 less to find upfront, and a deposit target measured in months rather than years.
Their remaining question was capacity. Could they service a $722,000 loan once the APRA buffer tests them at their actual rate plus 3%? The Wity Borrowing Power Assessment models that across 45+ lenders rather than one bank's calculator, and for a couple like Keira and Dan the gap between the most and least generous lender regularly runs to six figures.
And if the townhouse had been priced over the scheme cap, Keira's AHPRA registration would still open a 10% deposit, no-LMI pathway under the allied health policy available through Wity. Numbers rhyme with yours? The first home buyer team can map your version.
Based on typical scenarios. Individual outcomes vary.
Should you buy while rates are still rising?
The instinct says wait. Run the numbers first.
APRA held its 3% serviceability buffer at the 28 May 2026 review, so a lender tests you at your actual rate plus three percentage points, hike or no hike. The buffer has company now. Since 1 February 2026, APRA's first-ever debt-to-income caps limit each lender to writing 20% of new owner-occupier loans at six times income or above, with new builds exempt. Capacity is tighter, then. But the same screws apply to the buyer bidding against you, and the concessions above were built to offset exactly this squeeze.
One caution from the desk. We've seen a pre-approval issued in autumn fail its winter reassessment because the lender's assessment rate moved, with nothing about the borrower changing. If your pre-approval predates the May 2026 hike, treat the number as expired until it's re-run.
Your plan for this month is short. Concessions are live now. Clearance rates sit in the low 40s, spring listings are still weeks away, and the RBA meets on 11 August 2026. Confirm your borrowing power at today's assessment rates, under your state's new rules, before the crowd comes back.
The window between now and 11 August is the quiet one. Start the Wity questionnaire → Free. No credit check. Two minutes.