ACT Stamp Duty Calculator 2026: Rates, Concessions & First Home Buyers

From 1 July 2026 an eligible ACT buyer who hasn’t owned property for five years pays no duty at any price, and plenty of buyers still budget for duty they won’t pay. Check your eligibility first, so your buying plan sets your limit on the right numbers.

ACT stamp duty worked examples: $500,000, $750,000 and $1,000,000

What conveyance duty comes to at three common prices, worked by the calculator above on the ACT Revenue Office rates. The investor column is the standard rate; the owner-occupier column is for a buyer who will live in the home.

The figures exclude the land titles registration and transfer fees. First home buyer figures assume an established home and that you meet the eligibility rules set out below.

ACT stamp duty rates 2026

The ACT Revenue Office charges conveyance duty on a marginal scale: each slice of the price is taxed at its own rate and the slices stack, so the effective rate rises slowly as the price rises rather than jumping. Rates are per $100 or part of $100, so the value is rounded up to the next $100 first.

A $750,000 home falls in the $500,001 to $750,000 band, so the duty is $11,400 plus $4.32 for every $100 over $500,000. That is $11,400 + $10,800 = $22,200, an effective rate of 2.96%.

Over $1,455,000 the ACT charges a flat $4.54 per $100 on the whole value instead of the marginal scale (ACT Revenue Office).

The table is the standard rate, which an investor pays. An owner-occupier pays the lower owner-occupier rate: $19,208 on the same $750,000 home. That schedule is under concession rates below.

Source: ACT Revenue Office: Conveyance duty for non-commercial property (schedule dated 1 July 2025; the 2026-27 Budget update changed the concession schemes, not this table), read 30 September 2026.

First home buyer thresholds in the ACT

From 1 July 2026 the ACT removed both the income threshold and the property value limit from the Home Buyer Concession Scheme. An eligible buyer now pays no conveyance duty at any price (ACT Revenue Office, 2026-27 Budget).

You are eligible if no buyer has owned or held an interest in property in the last five years, and at least one buyer lives in the home as their principal residence for at least 12 months from settlement. It is not limited to first home buyers: anyone who has not owned property for five years can qualify.

Until 30 June 2026 the scheme was income-tested ($250,000 a year for a household with no dependent children, plus $4,600 for each child) and gave no duty only up to $1,020,000, with $35,238 off above that. On a $750,000 home it now saves $19,208, the full owner-occupier duty.

Our ACT first home buyer guide covers the rest of the Canberra buying process.

ACT stamp duty concession rates

The ACT charges eligible owner-occupiers a lower rate than other buyers up to $1,455,000. The gap is $2,992 at most prices, and from $1,455,000 both pay the same flat $4.54 per $100.

Foreign buyer surcharge in the ACT

The ACT does not charge a foreign purchaser surcharge on conveyance duty: a foreign buyer pays the same duty as anyone else on the same schedule. A foreign owner of residential land does pay a land tax surcharge of 0.75% of the average unimproved value each year, from 1 July 2018 (ACT Revenue Office).

Exemptions: who pays less or nothing in the ACT

• Home Buyer Concession Scheme. No duty for an eligible buyer who has not owned property in five years, no income test or price cap from 1 July 2026.
• Pensioner Duty Concession Scheme. Price cap removed from 1 July 2026; DVA Gold Card holders no longer wait 12 months, and DVA Service Pension recipients now qualify.
• Disability Duty Concession Scheme. Price cap removed from 1 July 2026.
• Off-the-plan unit duty exemption. Price cap removed from 1 July 2026. A new exemption covers owner-occupiers buying a newly built unit-titled home not sold off the plan.

Each one has its own eligibility test, set out by the ACT Revenue Office. A concession you are not entitled to can be reassessed with interest and penalties, so confirm it before settlement.

What is stamp duty in the ACT?

Stamp duty, called conveyance duty in the ACT, is the tax the ACT Government charges when a property changes hands. After your deposit it is usually the biggest upfront cost of buying, and the buyer pays it, not the seller.

You pay it once, on the purchase, normally at settlement. The ACT is part-way through a 20-year plan to replace stamp duty with general rates, so its duty rates and concessions change more often than in the states.

When do you pay stamp duty in the ACT?

The buyer pays conveyance duty, not the seller, and it is normally paid at settlement. Your conveyancer or solicitor works out the figure, lodges the transaction with the ACT Revenue Office and pays the duty from the settlement funds, so you rarely deal with the revenue office yourself.

Budget for it as cash on top of your deposit from the start: on a $750,000 home in the ACT it is $19,208 for an owner-occupier. Late payment can attract interest, which is one more reason the timing sits with your conveyancer. Our conveyancing guide explains who does what at settlement.

Stamp duty calculators for other states

Every state sets its own rates. Each of these pages runs the same calculator, locked to that state, with its rates table and first home buyer rules.

• NSW stamp duty calculator$27,937 on a $750,000 home; first home buyers pay $0 up to $800,000.
• VIC stamp duty calculator$40,070 on a $750,000 home; first home buyers pay $0 up to $600,000.
• QLD stamp duty calculator$19,600 on a $750,000 home; first home buyers pay $0 up to $700,000.
• WA stamp duty calculator$29,741 on a $750,000 home; first home buyers pay $0 up to $600,000.
• SA stamp duty calculator$35,080 on a $750,000 home; first home buyers pay $0 on a new home.
• TAS stamp duty calculator$28,935 on a $750,000 home; the first home exemption ended 30 June 2026.
• NT stamp duty calculator$37,125 on a $750,000 home; a $50,000 first-home grant, no concession.