Stamp Duty SA: Calculator, Rates & Costs (2026)

What is stamp duty in SA?

Stamp duty, properly called transfer duty, is a state tax on the transfer of property. In South Australia it is the biggest upfront government cost you face after the deposit itself.

The buyer pays it, not the seller, and it falls due around settlement. It is charged on the purchase price of the property and rises on a scale, so a dearer home carries a higher bill and a higher effective rate. RevenueSA collects it, and in practice your conveyancer handles the lodgement and payment for you.

SA stamp duty: what you’ll actually pay

Here is the duty on a range of common Adelaide price points. Because SA gives no general first home buyer concession, the standard buyer and first home buyer columns read the same.

These are owner-occupier estimates and exclude any foreign surcharge. For an exact figure on your own price, run it through the full stamp duty calculator.

How SA stamp duty is calculated

SA duty is tiered, or marginal. You do not pay one flat percentage on the whole price. Instead the price falls into a bracket, and you pay a fixed base amount for that bracket plus a marginal rate on the slice of the price above the bracket’s lower limit. The figures below match the rates used by the calculator on this page.

Worked example on a $650,000 home: you start at the over-$500,000 bracket base of $21,330, then add 5.50% on the $150,000 above $500,000, which is $8,250. That totals $29,580, the figure in the table above.

First home buyers in SA

South Australia has no general stamp duty concession for first home buyers, so the figures in the tables above are exactly what a first home buyer pays on an established home. That is the headline most people get wrong about SA.

There is one important exception. Since June 2024 RevenueSA offers a full stamp duty exemption for eligible first home buyers who buy or build a new home, or who buy vacant land to build on, with no property value cap. So the path splits cleanly:

• Buying an established home: you pay full duty at the rates above. No first home buyer relief on the duty.
• Buying or building new, or buying vacant land: as an eligible first home buyer you may pay $0 stamp duty.

Confirm your eligibility with RevenueSA, and see our SA first home buyer guide for the full grant and scheme detail.

Foreign buyers and surcharges

South Australia applies a 7% foreign ownership surcharge on residential property bought by foreign persons. It sits on top of the standard stamp duty, so a foreign buyer pays the scaled duty above plus 7% of the purchase price as an extra charge. The new-home first home buyer exemption does not change this.

When do you pay stamp duty in SA?

Duty is generally due at completion of the transaction, which is usually within about three months of the contract date. For most purchases that lines up with settlement, when ownership transfers to you.

You will rarely arrange the payment yourself. Your conveyancer or solicitor lodges the transfer documents and settles the duty as part of the settlement process, then it is rolled into the funds that move on the day. Budget for it as a settlement cost, not a later bill.