Stamp duty QLD explained for 2026
Stamp duty QLD — officially called transfer duty — is the tax the Queensland Government charges when property changes hands, and for most buyers in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast it's the single biggest cash cost at settlement. On a $700,000 house it's $24,525 at the general rate. On the same house bought by an eligible first home buyer, it's zero.
That gap is why this guide exists. The rates themselves are simple arithmetic; the concessions are where people either save $20,000 or accidentally miss out on it.
Below you'll find the current 2026 brackets, what an owner-occupier actually pays, how the first home concession phases out, and when the money is due. If you just want a number, the free QLD stamp duty calculator will give you an estimate in about 30 seconds.
Last updated: August 2026.
Key takeaways
- Queensland transfer duty on a $700,000 property is $24,525 at the general rate, rising to $38,025 at $1 million and $49,525 at $1.2 million.
- Eligible first home buyers pay $0 duty on an established home up to $700,000, with a sliding partial concession up to $799,999 and nothing above $800,000.
- Eligible first home buyers pay $0 duty on a new home or vacant land, with no price cap, for contracts dated 1 May 2025 or later.
- Owner-occupiers who've bought before still get the home concession, worth up to $7,175 — it applies a $1.00 per $100 rate to the first $350,000 of value.
- From 1 August 2026 you must be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or specified foreign retiree to claim any of the home concessions.
What's in this guide
- How much is stamp duty in QLD in 2026?
- What are the current Queensland transfer duty rates?
- How does the QLD home concession work?
- Who qualifies for the first home concession in QLD?
- What else do Queensland first home buyers get?
- When do you pay stamp duty in QLD?
- What pushes your QLD stamp duty bill higher?
- How to use a QLD property transfer duty calculator
How much is stamp duty in QLD in 2026?
Stamp duty in Queensland ranges from about $8,750 to $49,525 for typical residential purchases in 2026, depending on the price and which concession you qualify for. Here's what that looks like across common price points.
| Property value | General rate (investor or second home) | Home concession (owner-occupier) | First home buyer, established home |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500,000 | $15,925 | $8,750 | $0 |
| $600,000 | $20,025 | $12,850 | $0 |
| $700,000 | $24,525 | $17,350 | $0 |
| $730,000 | $25,875 | $18,700 | $6,555 |
| $750,000 | $26,775 | $19,600 | $10,925 |
| $800,000 | $29,025 | $21,850 | $21,850 |
| $900,000 | $33,525 | $26,350 | $26,350 |
| $1,000,000 | $38,025 | $30,850 | $30,850 |
| $1,200,000 | $49,525 | $42,350 | $42,350 |
Methodology: these figures are calculated from the transfer duty and home concession rate schedules published by the Queensland Revenue Office, current as at August 2026, and cross-checked against QRO's own published worked examples. They're the same schedules that sit behind Leadkit's stamp duty calculator — which is Leadkit's own tool, not neutral third-party data.
This is a price indication only. Your tradie will confirm the final price after assessing the job. For stamp duty specifically, that means your conveyancer or solicitor confirms the exact assessed amount before settlement — figures above exclude registration fees, mortgage registration and any additional foreign acquirer duty.
What are the current Queensland transfer duty rates?
Queensland transfer duty rates are tiered, and each tier only applies to the slice of value inside it — not to the whole purchase price.
| Dutiable value | Duty payable |
|---|---|
| Up to $5,000 | Nil |
| $5,001 to $75,000 | $1.50 for each $100 (or part) over $5,000 |
| $75,001 to $540,000 | $1,050 plus $3.50 for each $100 over $75,000 |
| $540,001 to $1,000,000 | $17,325 plus $4.50 for each $100 over $540,000 |
| Over $1,000,000 | $38,025 plus $5.75 for each $100 over $1,000,000 |
Two bits of vocabulary worth knowing, because they're what your solicitor will actually say to you:
- Dutiable value is the higher of the purchase price or the unencumbered market value of the property. Buy your uncle's unit at Kangaroo Point for $400,000 when it's worth $600,000 and you're assessed on $600,000, not $400,000.
- Liability date is the date the contract is entered into — not settlement. It's the date that decides which rates and concessions apply to you, and it starts the clock on when duty is due.
Compared with the rest of the country, Queensland sits in the middle. Our top marginal rate of 5.75% is lower than New South Wales at the premium end — if you're weighing up a move, the NSW stamp duty guide runs the same numbers for that state.
How does the QLD home concession work?
The home concession cuts your transfer duty by applying a concessional $1.00 per $100 rate to the first $350,000 of the property's value, and it's available even if you've owned a home before. Above $350,000, the normal brackets kick back in.
That's worth a flat $7,175 on any owner-occupied purchase over $350,000. On a $550,000 townhouse in Chermside, you'd pay $10,600 instead of $17,775.
To keep it, you have to move in with your belongings and live there daily within one year of settlement — that deadline can't be extended. You also can't sell, transfer or lease out the whole property within one year of moving in, or QRO reassesses you at the full rate and claws the difference back.
The classic trap: buying a place with a tenant already in it on a 12-month lease, then discovering the lease runs past your move-in deadline. Sort the lease dates before you sign the contract, not after.
Working out your full funds-to-complete? Compare the property and finance calculators — stamp duty, conveyancing, LMI and borrowing power in one place.
Who qualifies for the first home concession in QLD?
The first home concession in QLD wipes transfer duty entirely on an established home valued up to $700,000, then tapers off to nothing at $800,000. It stacks on top of the home concession rather than replacing it.
To be eligible you must:
- Be acquiring the property as an individual, aged 18 or over
- Have never held an interest in a residence anywhere in Australia or overseas
- Have never claimed the first home vacant land concession
- Pay market value if the property is valued between $700,001 and $799,999
- Move in within one year of settlement and live there daily
- Be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or specified foreign retiree — this requirement is new for contracts dated 1 August 2026 or later
The maximum saving is $24,525, which is exactly the full general-rate duty on a $700,000 home. Between $700,001 and $799,999 the concession shrinks on a straight-line slide: at $730,000 you'd pay $6,555, at $750,000 roughly $10,925. Cross $800,000 by a single dollar and the first home concession disappears completely — you drop back to the plain home concession. Full eligibility detail sits on the QRO first home concession page.
That cliff edge is worth real money at the negotiating table. A $799,000 contract and an $801,000 contract are about $21,850 apart in duty.
What else do Queensland first home buyers get?
Beyond the concession, first home buyers in Queensland get two more things worth knowing about.
The first home (new home) concession. For contracts dated 1 May 2025 or later, eligible first home buyers pay no transfer duty at all on a brand-new or substantially renovated home — with no price cap. Same deal for vacant land you're building on. It's the most generous concession in the state, and the reason so many first home buyers in the Ripley and Caboolture growth corridors are buying house-and-land rather than established.
The First Home Owner Grant. A $30,000 cash grant for eligible buyers of a new home valued under $750,000, for contracts signed on or after 20 November 2023. Details and the application process are on the QRO first home owner grant page.
Stack the new-home concession with the grant and an eligible first home buyer on a $700,000 new build can be $54,525 better off than an investor buying the same property.
When do you pay stamp duty in QLD?
Transfer duty in Queensland is generally due within 30 days of the liability date — usually the date you sign the contract — and in practice it's paid at settlement through your solicitor.
Most buyers never lodge anything themselves. Your solicitor or conveyancer will be a self assessor — a practitioner registered with QRO to assess and pay duty on your behalf — and the amount simply appears as a line on your settlement statement.
What matters for you is that it's cash, not something you can roll into the loan. Lenders assess duty as part of your funds-to-complete, alongside the deposit, conveyancing and inspections. If you're still working out what you can afford, run the borrowing power calculator and then subtract the duty from your savings — that's your real deposit.
Leadkit's library runs 202 calculators across 112 service categories, and 26 of them sit in the Finance and Property vertical — stamp duty, conveyancing, LMI, borrowing power. Line those up side by side and the point above becomes obvious: duty usually dwarfs every other settlement cost combined.
What pushes your QLD stamp duty bill higher?
Four things regularly add to a Queensland duty bill, and three of them catch people by surprise.
Additional foreign acquirer duty (AFAD). Foreign persons, including foreign-controlled companies and trusts, pay an extra 8% on residential land in Queensland. On an $800,000 apartment that's another $64,000.
Buying as an investor. No home concession, no first home concession — you pay the general rate. The $7,175 home-concession saving alone is often overlooked when people model rental yield.
Market value above contract price. Related-party sales, family transfers and "mates rates" deals are assessed on the higher figure.
Property that isn't all residence. Duty applies at the general rate to any land component that isn't part of the home or used for residential purposes — relevant for acreage buyers out toward Samford and the Lockyer Valley.
Registration fees are separate again, as are conveyancing costs — the conveyancing fees guide breaks those down properly.
How to use a QLD property transfer duty calculator
A QLD property transfer duty calculator gives you a usable estimate in under a minute if you feed it four things: the purchase price, whether you'll live in the property, whether you're a first home buyer, and whether the home is new or established. Everything else — the brackets, the $350,000 concessional slice, the taper between $700,000 and $800,000 — is arithmetic the tool handles.
Two sanity checks on any result you get:
- Does it use 2026 rates? Plenty of calculators still quote pre-May-2025 concession rules and badly overstate duty on new builds.
- Does it separate duty from registration fees? They're different charges, and bundling them without saying so makes comparison impossible.
QRO publishes its own transfer duty estimator for the official figure. Any other tool — including ours — is a fast cross-check with a plain-English breakdown, not the assessment itself.
Frequently asked questions
Q: How much is stamp duty on a $600,000 house in QLD?
A: Transfer duty on a $600,000 house in Queensland is $20,025 at the general rate, or $12,850 if you're an owner-occupier claiming the home concession. If you're an eligible first home buyer of an established home it's $0, because the property sits well under the $700,000 full-concession threshold. If it's a new build and you're a first home buyer, it's also $0 with no cap involved. These figures use the QRO rate schedules current in August 2026 and exclude registration and mortgage fees.
Q: Do first home buyers pay stamp duty in Queensland?
A: Not in most cases. Eligible first home buyers pay no transfer duty on an established home up to $700,000, and none at all on a new home or vacant land regardless of price, for contracts dated 1 May 2025 or later. Between $700,001 and $799,999 on an established home you'll pay a reduced amount that slides up as the price rises. Above $800,000 the first home concession is gone entirely, though the standard home concession still applies. From 1 August 2026 you also need to be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or specified foreign retiree.
Q: Is stamp duty the same as transfer duty in QLD?
A: Yes — transfer duty is the official name and stamp duty is what everyone actually calls it. Queensland renamed it years ago, but the old term stuck because that's what buyers search for. If you see "transfer duty" on a QRO form, a contract or a settlement statement, it's the same tax described in this guide. Queensland does charge other duties too — vehicle registration duty and insurance duty — so check which one a document means before you panic about a number.
Q: Can you add stamp duty to your home loan in Queensland?
A: Generally no. Lenders treat transfer duty as part of your funds-to-complete, so it comes out of your savings alongside the deposit. Some lenders will let you borrow a higher percentage against the property value, freeing up your own cash to cover duty, but that usually means paying lenders mortgage insurance. If that's the road you're heading down, the LMI cost guide explains what that premium looks like first.
Q: When exactly is stamp duty due in QLD?
A: Duty is due within 30 days of the liability date, which is normally the date the contract is signed. In practice your solicitor or conveyancer acts as a registered self assessor and handles the assessment and payment as part of settlement, so the money moves on settlement day rather than 30 days after contract. Delays get expensive — QRO charges unpaid tax interest and can apply penalties. If settlement is being pushed well past the contract date, ask your solicitor how the duty deadline is being managed.
Q: What happens if I don't move in within a year?
A: You lose the concession and get reassessed. Both the home concession and the first home concession require you to move in with your belongings within one year of settlement and live there daily — a deadline QRO does not extend. You also can't lease out the entire property within a year of moving in. If your circumstances change you must tell QRO within 28 days, and you'll be assessed the difference between what you paid and full general-rate duty. Plan the move-in dates before you sign rather than gambling on it.
Q: Do I pay stamp duty on a property transferred after a separation?
A: Usually not. Transfers of matrimonial or de facto relationship property under a court order or a binding financial agreement are generally exempt from transfer duty in Queensland. The exemption has specific conditions about the type of agreement and who the property goes to, so confirm it with a family lawyer and your conveyancer rather than assuming. Transfers between spouses of a principal place of residence can also be exempt in certain circumstances.
Final tips before you sign in Queensland
Get your duty figure before you make an offer, not after. It's a five-figure number for most buyers and it changes what you can genuinely afford to bid.
Watch the thresholds like a hawk. The $700,000 and $800,000 marks for established homes, and the $750,000 cap on the First Home Owner Grant, are hard edges — a few thousand dollars of purchase price either side can swing tens of thousands in duty and grants.
Check whether the property counts as new. For a first home buyer a brand-new build carries no duty at any price, which changes the maths on house-and-land against an established Brisbane cottage entirely. And before you commit to a price bracket, the Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes quarterly residential property price data worth a look.
Want an instant stamp duty figure for your purchase? Use the free QLD stamp duty quote calculator — takes 30 seconds, no signup. Results are an indication only; your solicitor confirms the assessed amount before settlement.
Run a property or finance business in Queensland? Every estimate above came from a calculator anyone can embed. Put one on your own site with Leadkit in 60 seconds and capture the lead while they're still working out their numbers.