Somewhere near $55,000. That's the ballpark transfer duty on Sydney's median home, which Cotality valued at $1.266 million in June 2026. Buy your first home in Canberra instead and, from 1 July 2026, the bill is $0.
Stamp duty stopped being fixed this year. The ACT and all five mainland states changed their rules in 2026, so what you pay now turns on what you buy, where you buy it, and when you sign, which is why a stamp duty calculator built for Australia's 2026 rules is step one of a property budget rather than an afterthought.
The timing matters. The RBA lifted the cash rate across February, March and May 2026, held it at 4.35% in June, and meets again on Tuesday 11 August 2026. Rising rates thin out the competition: auction clearance is running in the low 40s, sellers are negotiating, and organised buyers have more room to move than they've had in years. Duty relief lands sweetest in exactly this kind of market, because the cash you don't hand a state revenue office goes straight into your deposit.
What is stamp duty, and who charges it?
Stamp duty, which most states now call transfer duty, is a state tax on buying property, charged on a sliding scale against your purchase price and payable around settlement. There is no national rate. Each state sets its own schedule, its own first home buyer concessions, and its own definitions of "new" and "established", which is how the same $780,000 purchase can cost $0 in one postcode and close to $20,000 in another.
Lenders care about it too. We've seen approvals wobble at the final step because a buyer budgeted the deposit to the dollar and forgot the duty; lenders assess "funds to complete", meaning deposit plus duty plus fees, not the deposit alone.
What changed in 2026? More than in any year in memory
The ACT and all five mainland states moved in 2026. The scale is new: in a typical year one state tweaks a threshold, but this year brought an outright abolition, an uncapped exemption, and thresholds lifted well past where they'd sat for years.
| State / Territory | The 2026 change | Who wins |
|---|---|---|
| ACT | All first home buyer stamp duty abolished from 1 July 2026 (an Australian first) | First home buyers, any property type |
| WA | First home buyer exemption on established homes lifted to $600,000, concession to $800,000, from 7 May 2026 | First home buyers in Perth's rising market |
| QLD | First home buyer duty abolished on new builds, no price cap (temporary residents excluded from 1 August 2026) | First home buyers building or buying new |
| NSW | Exemption up to $800,000, plus a flagged $10,000 payment for first home buyers purchasing new homes (details still to be confirmed) | First home buyers under the cap |
| SA | First home buyer exemption on new homes and land (including off-the-plan) stays fully uncapped, confirmed in the 2026-27 SA Budget | First home buyers buying or building new, at any price |
| VIC | Off-the-plan concession extended to April 2027 | Off-the-plan buyers |
Stamp duty used to be a bill you copped. In 2026 it's a decision you make.
Follow the ACT change through. Abolition means a Canberra first home buyer keeps what would have been a five-figure duty cheque, which pulls their purchase date forward, which puts more first-timers into Gungahlin and Belconnen price brackets at once. The quiet window is now. Waiting for a rate cut means sharing the same exemption with a much bigger crowd.
Two fine-print traps sit in that table. WA's new thresholds have been live since 7 May 2026, so that benefit is already running, while Queensland's exclusion of temporary residents starts on 1 August 2026. NSW's $10,000 new-home payment had been announced but not fully legislated at the time of writing, so treat it as a possible bonus, not a plan. The full mid-year picture is in our round-up of what changed for home buyers in July 2026.
How much could the same buyers pay in different states?
Same couple. Three contracts.
Liam and Grace, both teachers, have $85,000 saved and a $780,000 budget for their first home.
Path A, a new townhouse in Everton Park, Brisbane: Queensland abolished first home buyer duty on new builds with no price cap, so duty is $0. Their $85,000 stays intact.
Path B, an established Queenslander in Chermside at the same price: at $780,000, general home rates put duty somewhere around $19,000, and Queensland's separate first home concession for established homes carries its own price limits, so at this price they may see little of it. Their usable savings drop to about $66,000.
Path C, a job transfer to Canberra: from 1 July 2026 the ACT charges eligible first home buyers no duty on either property type. $0 again.
The gap between A and B is roughly $19,000, or 2.4% of the purchase price, paid in cash on settlement day. The saving stacks, too. A new build under the price cap can still qualify for the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme (formerly the First Home Guarantee), which since 1 October 2025 has carried no income caps and a $1 million price cap in Queensland, and lower-income buyers can weigh up Help to Buy alongside it.
Based on typical scenarios. Individual outcomes vary.
Do interstate investors get any of this?
Most of the headline exemptions are first home buyer perks, and South Australia's is no exception: its uncapped exemption covers first home buyers only, on new homes and land (including off-the-plan), so investors miss out there. Victoria's off-the-plan concession runs to April 2027, though, so an investor buying new can still cut entry costs sharply in the right state.
Then look at what else now favours new builds. The May 2026 federal budget, now law, restricts negative gearing to new builds for established property bought after 12 May 2026, and APRA's debt-to-income caps that went live on 1 February 2026 exempt new builds and construction lending entirely. All three levers point the same way. A first-time investor comparing an established unit against a new townhouse should read our first investment property guide before picking a state, because the acquisition-cost gap between the two widened sharply this year.
Why use a stamp duty calculator for Australia's 2026 rules?
Because the rules are now jagged. WA's exemption cuts out at $600,000 and tapers to $800,000, NSW's stops at $800,000, and SA's has no price cap at all but covers only first home buyers on new homes and land. A $15,000 difference in price, or a new-versus-established choice two streets apart, can swing the bill by thousands.
The Wity Stamp Duty Calculator applies each state's current 2026 settings, including the mid-year changes above. Price a Chermside cottage against a Gungahlin townhouse in under a minute, before you book a single inspection.
Duty is only half the sum, though. The Wity Borrowing Power Assessment models your capacity across 45+ lenders rather than one bank's calculator, and duty shapes your funds to complete, which in turn shapes which lenders can say yes.
Deposit still the sticking point? Under specialist lending policies available through Wity, any borrower can buy with a 15% deposit and no LMI, and the thresholds are more generous again for nurses, allied health, senior professionals, doctors and dentists. Our first home buyer service maps how duty, deposit and the schemes fit together, and the first home buyer guide for 2026 covers the whole process from savings plan to settlement day.
What should you do before spring?
Three things this month. Confirm which 2026 rules apply in your target state, including anything still pending, like NSW's $10,000 payment. Price the duty on your top three suburbs, new and established, before you fall for a listing.
Want to see how this applies to your situation? Start the Wity questionnaire → — free, no credit check, two minutes.