Stamp Duty in WA Explained 2026

Last updated: September 2026

Stamp duty in WA — officially called transfer duty — costs about $22,500 on a $600,000 home, $27,265 on a $700,000 home and roughly $39,400 on a house at Perth's median price of $938,000. First home buyers pay nothing at all up to $600,000 under the thresholds that started on 7 May 2026.

It's the single biggest cash cost of buying a property in Western Australia after the deposit, it's due at settlement, and no lender will let you borrow it as part of the loan the way you can with lenders mortgage insurance.

This guide covers the current WA transfer duty rates, the first home owner rate, the exemptions and concessions worth checking, what you'll actually pay on a Perth property, and the other settlement costs that land on the same day.

Planning the purchase? Work out what you can borrow first with the borrowing power calculator, then add the duty figures below to your cash-to-close.

Key takeaways

• WA transfer duty on a $700,000 home is $27,265 at the standard rate — $11,115 plus $4.75 per $100 of value above $360,000.
• First home buyers pay no duty up to $600,000 and a concessional rate up to $800,000, under thresholds that took effect on 7 May 2026. Vacant land is exempt to $450,000 and concessional to $550,000.
• WA uses one rate ladder for everyone. Unlike Victoria and Queensland, there's no separate concessional scale for owner-occupiers — an investor and an owner-occupier pay the same duty on the same price.
• The top rate is 5.15% on the portion of the price above $725,000. On Perth's median house price of $938,000, that's roughly $39,400 in duty.
• Foreign buyers pay an extra 7% of the dutiable value on residential property, on top of the standard duty.
• Duty is calculated on the dutiable value — the purchase price or the unencumbered market value, whichever is higher. Buying under market value from a relative doesn't reduce the bill.
• Buying off-the-plan can wipe the duty entirely up to $800,000, under a concession now extended to 30 June 2028.

Table of Contents

1. How much is stamp duty in WA?
2. What is transfer duty and who pays it?
3. What are the WA transfer duty rates for 2026?
4. First home owner stamp duty in WA — what changed in 2026
5. How much is stamp duty on a Perth property?
6. WA stamp duty exemptions and concessions
7. When and how do you pay WA stamp duty?
8. What else do you pay at settlement in WA?
9. How does WA compare with NSW, Victoria and Queensland?
10. Frequently asked questions

How much is stamp duty in WA?

Stamp duty in WA ranges from about $13,000 on a $400,000 property to roughly $68,400 on a $1.5 million property, calculated on a sliding scale with a top marginal rate of 5.15%. First home buyers pay nothing up to $600,000.

Here's what the current scales produce across the prices most Western Australian buyers are working with.

Disclaimer: These figures are calculated from RevenueWA's published transfer duty scales as at September 2026 and exclude registration fees, the foreign buyer surcharge and any concession you haven't been assessed for. This is a price indication only — your settlement agent or conveyancer will confirm the final figure after assessing the transaction.

Methodology: every number in that table is worked directly off the transfer duty rate scales published by RevenueWA, not estimated. Leadkit builds cost calculators for Australian businesses, and our own stamp duty calculator currently runs the NSW, Victorian and Queensland scales — so for WA we've gone to the source and shown the arithmetic below rather than quoting a tool that doesn't cover this state yet. That's a deliberate call: a duty figure that's close-but-wrong costs you real money at settlement.

One quirk worth knowing before you check the maths yourself: WA duty is assessed "per $100 or part thereof", so the dutiable value is effectively rounded up to the next $100 before the rate is applied. On a price like $712,450 it adds a couple of dollars, not hundreds.

What is transfer duty and who pays it?

Transfer duty is a state tax charged by the WA Government when property changes hands, and the buyer pays it — not the seller. "Stamp duty" is the old name that stuck; RevenueWA has called it transfer duty since 2008, and the two terms mean the same thing.

It's charged on the dutiable value of the transaction. That's the purchase price or the property's unencumbered market value, whichever is higher — "unencumbered" meaning valued as if no mortgage or other charge sat against it. This matters more often than people expect: if your parents sell you a house in Bayswater for $400,000 when it's worth $700,000, duty is assessed on $700,000.

Duty applies to houses, units, vacant land, farms and commercial property. It also applies to some transactions people don't expect, including certain business asset sales and changes to who's on a title.

You'll pay it on top of your deposit, and it can't be added to the loan. Lenders will count it as a cost you must fund from your own savings, which is why it shapes your maximum purchase price as directly as your borrowing capacity does. Run both sides of that equation before you start inspecting.

Full rules, forms and the official rate scales sit with RevenueWA's transfer duty pages.

What are the WA transfer duty rates for 2026?

WA transfer duty rates run on a five-step marginal scale from 1.90% up to 5.15%, with the top rate applying to every dollar above $725,000. This is the general rate, and it's the one that applies to most residential purchases in Western Australia.

The scale is marginal, not a flat percentage. Crossing $725,000 doesn't reprice your whole purchase at 5.15% — only the portion above $725,000 is taxed at that rate. A $726,000 house pays $51.50 more than a $725,000 one, not thousands.

Worked example on a $650,000 Perth home:

• Duty to $360,000 = $11,115
• Plus 4.75% on the remaining $290,000 = $13,775
• Total transfer duty = $24,890

There's also a concessional rate for residential or business property with a dutiable value of $200,000 or less: $1.50 per $100 up to $120,000, then $1,800 plus $4.04 per $100 above that. It's mostly relevant to small regional purchases and low-value land parcels, not the Perth metro market.

The one genuinely good piece of news for WA investors: there's no separate, harsher investor scale here. An owner-occupier and a landlord buying the same $800,000 house in Scarborough pay the same $32,315.

This is a price indication only. Your settlement agent will confirm the final duty assessed by RevenueWA.

First home owner stamp duty in WA — what changed in 2026

From 7 May 2026, eligible first home buyers in WA pay no transfer duty on a home worth up to $600,000, and a concessional rate up to $800,000. The previous thresholds were $500,000 and $700,000, so the exemption ceiling moved up $100,000.

This is the first home owner rate of duty (FHOR) — a separate rate scale, not a rebate you claim back later.

What that's worth in cash: a first home buyer at $600,000 saves the full $22,515. At $650,000 the saving is $16,815. At $750,000 it's about $5,500. By $800,000 the concessional scale has caught up with the general scale and the benefit is effectively gone — which makes $600,000 a very sharp line to shop around.

The FHOR applies to established homes as well as new builds. The separate First Home Owner Grant — a one-off payment of up to $10,000 — does not: it's for new homes or substantially renovated homes only, with a property value cap of $800,000 south of the 26th parallel and $1,000,000 north of it for transactions from 7 May 2026. There's no income or assets test on the grant. Details and the application sit with RevenueWA's first home owner grant pages.

Two conditions catch people out. You need to occupy the home as your principal place of residence, and you need to apply for the grant or duty pre-approval within 12 months of the transaction completing. Ask your settlement agent to lodge the FHOR application with the transaction record — don't assume it's automatic because you ticked a box on the offer.

Working out your deposit? If you're buying with less than 20% down, model the lenders mortgage insurance premium alongside the duty — LMI can be capitalised into the loan, duty can't, and buyers routinely mix the two up.

How much is stamp duty on a Perth property?

On Perth's median house price of $938,000, stamp duty is about $39,400 — around 4.2% of the purchase price. REIWA reported the Perth median house sale price at $938,000 at the end of the June 2026 quarter, after 5.3% growth in the March quarter and a preliminary 4.2% in June.

That growth has a tax consequence most buyers don't price in. Perth's median has climbed straight through the $725,000 threshold, so the marginal dollar of a typical Perth house purchase is now taxed at 5.15% rather than 4.75%. Every $50,000 of price growth adds roughly $2,575 to the duty bill.

Here's how the duty tracks across the Perth metro price bands:

Notice the percentage creeping up as the price rises — that's the marginal scale doing its work. The duty rate you feel is always lower than the top rate you're charged.

The same figures apply anywhere in Western Australia. There's no metro-versus-regional split in the transfer duty scale, unlike the first home buyer schemes in some other states. A $650,000 house in Bunbury, Geraldton or Karratha attracts exactly the same $24,890 as one in Como.

Disclaimer: These are general estimates, not quotes. This is a price indication only — your settlement agent confirms the final assessment after reviewing the contract.

WA stamp duty exemptions and concessions

WA stamp duty exemptions cover first home buyers, off-the-plan purchases, transfers between spouses, deceased estates and family farm transfers, among others. Most are claimed through your settlement agent when the transaction record is lodged, not applied for separately afterwards.

The ones worth checking against your circumstances:

Off-the-plan concession. For a new dwelling bought off-the-plan under a pre-construction contract, no duty is payable up to $800,000, tapering to a 50% concession above $900,000. Buy a dwelling that's already under construction and the concession is 75% up to $800,000, tapering to 37.5% above $900,000. The scheme was due to end on 30 June 2026 and has been extended to 30 June 2028, with eligibility expanded to survey-strata and community title (land) schemes from 12 March 2026. On a $700,000 off-the-plan apartment in South Perth that's the full $27,265 gone — easily the largest single concession available to a non-first-home-buyer in WA.

Spouse and de facto transfers. Transferring the family home into joint names with a spouse or de facto partner is generally exempt, as are transfers made under a formal family court order or binding financial agreement after a separation.

Deceased estates. A transfer to a beneficiary under a will or the rules of intestacy generally attracts nominal duty rather than the full scale — nominal duty being a small flat amount charged to stamp the document rather than tax the value.

Family farm transfers. Transfers of farming property between family members can be exempt where the land is used for primary production and the parties meet the relationship tests.

Corporate reconstructions and superannuation transfers also have their own concessions. If your transaction involves a trust, a self managed super fund or a company structure, get advice before you sign — duty treatment varies sharply by structure, and it's not something you can fix after settlement.

The thing that trips people up is what isn't exempt. Buying out a sibling's share of an inherited house is a dutiable transfer. Adding a partner to the title who isn't a spouse or de facto is dutiable. Transferring a property into your own family trust is dutiable, at full market value. When in doubt, check the specific exemption on the RevenueWA site before you assume.

Foreign buyers duty runs the other way. Foreign persons and entities buying residential property in WA pay an additional 7% of the dutiable value on top of the standard duty, and have done since 1 January 2019. On an $800,000 house that's $56,000 extra — $88,315 all up. Every buyer has to complete a foreign transfer duty declaration, even if the answer is no.

When and how do you pay WA stamp duty?

WA transfer duty is paid at settlement, almost always by your settlement agent out of the funds you provide, and the transfer can't be registered at Landgate until it's paid. You don't pay it when you sign the contract.

The mechanics, in order:

1. You sign the offer and acceptance. The duty liability arises at that point, even though nothing is payable yet.
2. Your settlement agent lodges the transaction record with RevenueWA — generally within two months of the transaction date — along with any concession or exemption application.
3. RevenueWA issues an assessment notice showing the duty payable.
4. Duty is paid in line with the assessment notice, usually as part of the settlement figures, and the document is endorsed.
5. Landgate registers the transfer of title.

Practically, this means the duty amount sits in your settlement statement alongside the balance of the purchase price, the registration fees and the adjustments for council rates and water. You transfer one lot of cleared funds and your settlement agent distributes it.

Two things to be careful about. First, if you're relying on a concession, make sure the application goes in with the transaction record — a late claim means paying the full amount and applying for a reassessment, which ties up money you probably need. Second, if the contract price is adjusted after signing, or you add or remove a buyer before settlement, the duty is reassessed. Tell your settlement agent immediately, not at the last minute.

Comparing settlement agents? Get a written breakdown of the professional fee versus disbursements before you engage one — the conveyancing quote calculator gives you a ballpark to check quotes against.

What else do you pay at settlement in WA?

Beyond stamp duty, expect to fund Landgate registration fees, settlement agent fees, lender fees, building and pest inspections, and rates and water adjustments — commonly another $2,000 to $4,000 on a typical Perth purchase.

Landgate's registration fees are set by regulation and change on 1 July each year, and the transfer fee scales with the property value rather than being a flat charge — Landgate's transfer lodgement fee calculator gives you the exact figure for your price.

These are general estimates only. This is a price indication only — your settlement agent will confirm the final figures in your settlement statement.

The number that actually matters is your cash to close: deposit, plus duty, plus registration fees, plus professional fees, minus any grant you're eligible for. On an $800,000 Perth purchase with a 20% deposit, that's $160,000 of deposit plus roughly $34,000 of duty and fees. Budget the second number as carefully as the first.

How does WA compare with NSW, Victoria and Queensland?

WA sits in the middle of the pack on transfer duty — cheaper than Victoria at most price points, broadly similar to NSW, and more expensive than Queensland for owner-occupiers. Every state runs its own scale, its own concessions and its own thresholds, so a duty figure from an interstate mate is worthless as a guide.

The structural differences that matter:

• Owner-occupier concessions. Victoria and Queensland both run concessional scales for people who'll live in the property. WA doesn't — one ladder for everyone. That makes WA relatively better for investors and relatively worse for owner-occupiers at the same price.
• First home buyer thresholds. WA's $600,000 exemption ceiling is generous relative to the local median. Queensland runs a full exemption for first home buyers purchasing a brand-new home or vacant land at any price under contracts from 1 May 2025 — a genuinely different design.
• Foreign buyer surcharge. WA charges 7%. NSW charges 9%, Victoria and Queensland 8%.
• Top marginal rate. WA's 5.15% above $725,000 kicks in at a lower value than the equivalent thresholds east, which is why the duty on a median Perth house has climbed so fast.

If you're buying interstate as well, the same arithmetic applies in reverse — our NSW stamp duty guide walks through the Revenue NSW scale and the first home buyer thresholds there.

Frequently asked questions

Q: How much is stamp duty on a $700,000 house in WA?

A: Transfer duty on a $700,000 property in WA is $27,265 at the standard rate — $11,115 plus $4.75 per $100 of the $340,000 above the $360,000 threshold. If you're an eligible first home buyer, the first home owner rate cuts that to $16,150 under the thresholds that started on 7 May 2026. Add Landgate registration fees and your settlement agent's fee on top, and note the amount is due at settlement as cleared funds — you can't roll it into the loan.

Q: Do first home buyers pay stamp duty in WA?

A: Not on a home valued at $600,000 or less. From 7 May 2026, eligible first home buyers pay no transfer duty up to $600,000, then a concessional rate of $16.15 per $100 between $600,001 and $800,000, above which the general rate applies. Vacant land is exempt to $450,000 and concessional to $550,000. You must occupy the property as your principal place of residence, and the application should be lodged with the transaction record by your settlement agent — check the RevenueWA first home owner rate fact sheet for the full eligibility conditions.

Q: Can you add stamp duty to your home loan in WA?

A: No. Lenders treat transfer duty as an upfront cost you fund from your own savings, not something they'll capitalise the way lenders mortgage insurance can be. It's counted in your "cash to close" alongside the deposit and settlement fees. That's why duty effectively caps your purchase price: on an $800,000 Perth home you need roughly $34,000 in duty and fees available on top of the deposit. Work out your borrowing capacity and your available cash separately, then take the lower of the two ceilings.

Q: Is stamp duty calculated on the purchase price or the valuation?

A: On whichever is higher. Duty is charged on the dutiable value — the consideration you pay, or the unencumbered market value of the property, whichever is greater. For an arm's-length sale on the open market those are the same number, so the purchase price is used. Where they differ, typically in a family transfer or a sale below market, RevenueWA assesses on market value and may require a valuation. Buying a house from a parent at a mates-rates price won't reduce the duty.

Q: How much is stamp duty on a $1 million house in Perth?

A: About $42,615 — $28,453 plus 5.15% of the $275,000 above $725,000. That's roughly 4.3% of the purchase price. No first home buyer concession applies at that value; the concessional scale runs out at $800,000. On top of the duty you'll pay Landgate transfer and mortgage registration fees and your settlement agent's fee, so budget closer to $45,000 all in. This is a price indication only — your settlement agent will confirm the final figure.

Q: Do you pay stamp duty on vacant land in WA?

A: Yes, on the same general rate scale as a house. A $400,000 block attracts $13,015 in duty. Eligible first home buyers get a separate concession for land: no duty up to $450,000 and a concessional rate to $550,000, on the condition you build a home on it and live in it. If you're buying land and building, the duty is assessed on the land value only — the building contract is a separate transaction and isn't subject to transfer duty, which is why house-and-land packages often work out cheaper on duty than buying an established home of the same total value.

Q: What is the difference between stamp duty and land tax in WA?

A: Transfer duty is a one-off tax paid when you buy. Land tax is an annual tax on the unimproved value of land you own as at 30 June each year, and your principal place of residence is exempt from it. Investors, holiday-home owners and businesses pay land tax annually; owner-occupiers generally don't. Both are administered by RevenueWA, but they're separate assessments with separate thresholds — you can't offset one against the other.

Q: Do you pay stamp duty when transferring property to a spouse in WA?

A: Generally no, where the transfer is of your principal place of residence into joint names with a spouse or de facto partner. Transfers made under a family court order or a binding financial agreement following a separation are also generally exempt. Transfers to other family members — a sibling, an adult child, a parent — are dutiable at full market value, as are transfers into a family trust or company. Get the specific exemption confirmed before you sign anything, because the duty is assessed on market value, not on what changes hands.

Q: Does the first home owner grant reduce stamp duty in WA?

A: No — they're two separate things. The first home owner rate of duty reduces or removes the duty. The First Home Owner Grant is a cash payment of up to $10,000 for buying or building a new home, with a value cap of $800,000 south of the 26th parallel and $1,000,000 north of it for transactions from 7 May 2026. You can receive both if you qualify for both, but the grant isn't available on established homes, while the duty concession is. Apply within 12 months of the transaction completing.

Q: How is stamp duty affected if I buy with a partner who already owns property?

A: The first home owner rate requires all buyers to be eligible first home owners. If one of you has previously owned residential property in Australia, the concession is generally reduced or unavailable for the whole transaction, not just that person's share. This catches a lot of couples. Check the eligibility conditions before you make an offer — and if the numbers are marginal, get the advice before signing, because you can't restructure a transaction after the fact to qualify.

Q: What happens to stamp duty if the purchase falls through?

A: If the contract is terminated before completion and the transfer is never registered, duty generally isn't payable, and any duty already paid may be refundable through a reassessment. The application has to be made to RevenueWA with evidence the transaction was cancelled, and time limits apply. Your settlement agent handles the reassessment application. Don't assume a refund is automatic just because settlement didn't happen.

Q: How much do repayments cost once I've covered the duty?

A: That depends on your loan size and rate rather than the duty itself, but the two interact — every dollar of duty is a dollar not available for the deposit, which pushes up your loan and can tip you under a 20% deposit into LMI territory. Model the loan against a few purchase prices with the home loan repayment calculator before you settle on a budget, and remember that lenders assess you against a serviceability buffer above the actual rate, in line with APRA's guidance.

Methodology and data sources

Every duty figure in this guide is calculated directly from the transfer duty rate scales published by RevenueWA, current as at September 2026, using the marginal steps shown in the rate tables above. Nothing is estimated or averaged — the arithmetic is reproducible from the published scales, and we've shown a worked example so you can check it.

Perth median house price data is from REIWA's June 2026 quarter market update. Settlement cost ranges are general market estimates and vary by agent, lender and property.

A note on where Leadkit sits in this: we build embeddable cost calculators for Australian businesses, and the library currently runs 202 active calculators across 112 categories, 90 of them full quote calculators with real rate cards behind them. Our own stamp duty tool covers the NSW, Victorian and Queensland scales at present, so the WA figures here come from the source rather than from our calculator — we'd rather tell you that plainly than imply first-party data we don't have for this state. The finance and property tools in the library apply nationally, and the WA-specific numbers here come straight from the state's own published scales.

All figures are indications only and exclude registration fees, the foreign buyer surcharge and any concession you haven't been assessed for. Duty law changes, sometimes mid-year — confirm the current rates with RevenueWA or your settlement agent before you commit.

Official sources:

• RevenueWA — transfer duty assessment and rates
• RevenueWA — first home owner grant
• WA Government — 2026-27 Housing Taxation Package
• Landgate — transfer lodgement fee calculator
• Australian Taxation Office — for the cost-base treatment of duty on investment property

The short version

Stamp duty in WA is the second-biggest cheque you'll write on settlement day, and it's the one buyers most often leave out of the budget until it's too late to move. Know your number before you make an offer, not after.

If you're a first home buyer, the $600,000 exemption ceiling that started on 7 May 2026 is worth up to $22,515 — enough to change which suburbs are realistic. If you're buying off-the-plan, the concession can wipe the duty entirely up to $800,000. And if you're an investor, WA's single rate ladder means you're not being charged a premium for it, which isn't true everywhere.

Run your own numbers first. Use the Leadkit finance and property calculators to model borrowing power, repayments and LMI, then add the duty figure from the table above to get your true cash-to-close. Results are an indication only — your settlement agent confirms the final figures.

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