First home buyer stamp duty in Victoria: the exemption and concession

Stamp duty is usually the largest single cost a buyer faces after the deposit, so for first home buyers the Victorian duty exemption and concession are often worth more than any grant. Where the dutiable value is under the threshold and the conditions are met, the duty on a first home can fall to zero. This post is the first-home-buyer detail behind our general Victorian stamp duty guide: who qualifies, the thresholds, the residence rule that trips people up, and how the duty benefit differs from the First Home Owner Grant. It is general information, not financial or legal advice; the State Revenue Office (SRO) assesses eligibility on your specific circumstances.

How much duty does a first home buyer pay in Victoria?

It comes down to the dutiable value of the property, which is generally the purchase price:

• Up to $600,000: a full exemption. You pay no land transfer duty at all.
• $600,001 to $750,000: a concession. You pay a reduced amount, tapered so the saving shrinks as the value rises toward $750,000.
• Over $750,000: no first home buyer exemption or concession applies, and standard duty is payable.

Because the concession tapers across the $600,000 to $750,000 band, the difference a few thousand dollars of price makes near the bottom of that band can be surprisingly large. Our stamp duty calculator will estimate the duty with the first home buyer benefit applied so you can see where your purchase lands.

Does it apply to established homes?

Yes. Unlike the grant, the duty exemption and concession apply to a new or established home, or to vacant land you intend to build your first home on. This is one of the most important and least understood points: you do not have to buy a brand-new property to get the duty benefit, so an older house within the threshold qualifies just as a new one does. That makes the duty benefit far more broadly useful to first home buyers than the grant, which is limited to new homes.

Who is eligible?

The SRO sets several conditions, and all of them have to be met. In broad terms:

• All purchasers must be natural persons, not a company or a trust, and at least 18 years old.
• At least one purchaser must be a genuine first home buyer. No purchaser can have previously owned and occupied a home in Australia for a continuous period of at least 6 months on or after 1 July 2000. Owning property you never lived in, or owning before that date, is treated differently, which is an area the SRO assesses on the specific history rather than one to assume.
• At least one purchaser must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident.
• The home must be bought at genuine market price and be your principal place of residence, not an investment.

The "owned and occupied" wording matters: the test is about having lived in a home you owned, not merely about ever having had your name on a title. If your history is at all complicated, this is exactly the kind of eligibility question to put to the SRO or your conveyancer before you count on the saving.

The residence rule that catches people out

The benefit is conditional on you actually living in the home. You must move in and occupy it as your principal place of residence, and live there for a continuous period of 12 months, starting within 12 months of settlement. If you are buying vacant land to build on, the timing is measured differently: you must be living there by the earlier of 12 months after the occupancy certificate is issued, or 36 months after settlement.

Miss the residence requirement, for instance by renting the property out instead of living in it, or moving out before the 12 continuous months are up, and the SRO can reassess and claw back the duty you were exempted from. The exemption is not a one-off event at settlement; it is a benefit you have to earn by living there.

Is this the same as the First Home Owner Grant?

No, and confusing the two is common. They are separate benefits with different rules:

• The duty exemption/concession reduces or removes the land transfer duty you pay, and it applies to new or established homes up to $750,000.
• The First Home Owner Grant is a separate cash grant, and it is limited to buyers of new homes within its own threshold.

Because they are separate, an eligible first home buyer purchasing a qualifying new home may benefit from both, while someone buying an established home may qualify for the duty benefit but not the grant. It is worth working through each one on its own terms rather than treating "first home buyer help" as a single thing.

How it stacks with other concessions

The first home buyer benefit does not exist in isolation. If you are buying off the plan, the off-the-plan concession can reduce the dutiable value that your first home buyer threshold is then tested against, which is how some off-the-plan buyers get a purchase that would otherwise exceed $600,000 to sit within the exemption. The interaction between these concessions is genuinely fiddly and depends on figures specific to your contract, so it is one of the clearest cases for having your conveyancer or the SRO run the actual numbers rather than estimating.

The practical takeaway

For most first home buyers in Victoria, the duty benefit is the single biggest factor in upfront cost, and it turns on a few things within a buyer's control: the dutiable value relative to the threshold, being a genuine first home buyer, and living in the home for the required period. The full stamp duty guide covers how duty works for buyers generally. Because the residence requirement is the condition the clawback exists to enforce, it operates as an ongoing obligation rather than a one-off formality, and eligibility in any specific case is assessed by the SRO.

Sources

• State Revenue Office Victoria, "First home buyer duty exemption or concession": the full exemption for dutiable value up to $600,000 and the tapered concession from $600,001 to $750,000; application to a new or established home or vacant land; the eligibility conditions (all purchasers natural persons and at least 18, at least one a first home buyer who has not previously owned and occupied a home in Australia for a continuous 6 months on or after 1 July 2000, at least one an Australian citizen or permanent resident, bought at genuine market price as a principal place of residence); the residence requirement (live there for a continuous 12 months, starting within 12 months of settlement; for vacant land, by the earlier of 12 months from the occupancy certificate or 36 months from settlement); and that the duty benefit is separate from the First Home Owner Grant. https://www.sro.vic.gov.au/buying-property/land-transfer-stamp-duty/concessions-exemptions-and-waivers/first-home-buyers/first-home-buyer-duty-exemption-or-concession

Sources verified 18 August 2026. Duty thresholds, eligibility conditions, and residence rules are set by legislation and can change with each state budget; confirm your eligibility and the current figures with the State Revenue Office or your conveyancer before relying on them.