Stamp duty on a house and land package
A package can be one contract for a finished home or two contracts, one for the block and one for the build, and the revenue offices do not treat those the same way.
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For stamp duty a house and land package is assessed differently depending on the state and on whether it is sold as one contract or as a land contract plus a building contract, and the Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction with an exemption written for packages. Its House and Land Package Exemption removes stamp duty, with no means test and no value cap, when a house and land are bought from a building contractor in a single transaction under a contract signed from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2027. Elsewhere the package falls back on the first home rules. NSW pays its $10,000 grant on land plus a building contract only if the two together come to $750,000 or less, against $600,000 for a finished new home. Queensland and South Australia remove duty for a first home buyer on both a new home and land to build on, at any price. The structure of the contracts therefore decides which threshold you are measured against, and it is worth settling before you sign.
Established, new or land: duty for a first home
New home
$0
| Established home | $26,830 |
| Vacant land at this price | $0 |
| Grant on the new home | $15,000 |
One contract or two
Developers sell packages in two common shapes. In the first you sign a single contract for a finished house on its lot. In the second you buy the block under a land contract and sign a separate building contract with a builder. The revenue offices write their first home thresholds and grants around those shapes, so the same $700,000 package can be measured against a land threshold, a new-home threshold or a combined land-and-build threshold.
The table below takes a package of $320,000 for the land and $380,000 for the build, bought by a first home buyer. The first column treats the purchase as a block of vacant land at the land price, the way the land thresholds are framed. The second treats the whole package as a new home at $700,000. How a building contract itself is treated for duty is a question for the office in your state; the calculator does not add anything for it.
| State | Land contract at $320,000 | One contract at $700,000 | Grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | $0 | $0 | $10,000 |
| VIC | $0 | $24,713 | $10,000 |
| QLD | $0 | $0 | $30,000 |
| WA | $0 | $16,150 | $10,000 |
| SA | $0 | $0 | $15,000 |
| TAS | $10,735 | $26,748 | $20,000 |
| ACT | $0 | $0 | none |
| NT | $11,529 | $34,650 | $50,000 |
In NSW the grant column assumes land plus building contract, which is what allows the $750,000 ceiling; bought as a finished home at the same price it would exceed the $600,000 new-home cap. In the Territory the one-contract column does not yet apply the package exemption: it shows the duty a first home buyer would pay outside it. The next section adds it.
Northern Territory: the only package exemption
The House and Land Package Exemption is the Territory's main duty concession for home buyers. It applies when house and land are bought from a building contractor in a single transaction, under a contract dated from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2027. It is not means tested and has no value cap. The condition is residence: move in within twelve months of completion and stay six continuous months.
| Package price | Duty without the exemption | With the exemption | HomeGrown grant (first home) | FreshStart grant (not first home) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $550,000 | $27,225 | $0 | $50,000 | $30,000 |
| $700,000 | $34,650 | $0 | $50,000 | $30,000 |
| $900,000 | $44,550 | $0 | $50,000 | $30,000 |
Combined with the $50,000 HomeGrown Territory Grant for first home buyers, or the $30,000 FreshStart New Home Grant for everyone else, a Territory package can leave the buyer ahead after government charges. The grants run for contracts up to 30 September 2027. The NT house and land page has the detail.
Northern Territory new home: duty and grant
HomeGrown Territory Grant
$50,000
| Stamp duty | $30,690 |
| Grant minus duty | $19,310 |
| Duty rule | Territory stamp duty formula |
NSW: two grant ceilings
Revenue NSW pays the $10,000 First Home Owner (New Homes) Grant on a new home up to $600,000, or on land plus a building contract up to $750,000 combined. Duty is a separate question. For a first home buyer the land counts against the land thresholds of the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme, exempt to $350,000 and phasing out at $450,000. A block at $380,000 therefore carries $4,142, while a finished house and land at $700,000 on a single contract is exempt under the home threshold.
Queensland and South Australia: either shape works for a first home buyer
The Queensland Revenue Office removes transfer duty for a first home buyer on a new home and on vacant land bought to build, both without a cap, so the choice of contract structure does not change the duty. The $30,000 grant requires the home to be valued under $750,000. RevenueSA's first home relief also covers both a new home and land to build on, with no cap; its grant of up to $15,000 is paid for the new home, not the land alone.
For buyers who are not first home buyers the picture changes. In Queensland a home buyer who will live in the house can use the home concession rate on a finished home, $17,350 at $700,000, against $24,525 at the general rate. Since 1 August 2026 that concession needs a citizen, permanent resident or specified foreign retiree.
Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT
Victoria applies its first home thresholds to the value of the land alone when you buy vacant land, so a $320,000 block is exempt for a first home buyer whatever the house will cost; its $10,000 grant needs a new home valued at $750,000 or less. Where a single contract includes construction still to come, the State Revenue Office's off-the-plan rule taxes the price less that cost, under the conditions on the Victorian off-the-plan page. Western Australia measures land against its own first home thresholds, $450,000 and $550,000, and pays its $10,000 grant on a new home up to $800,000 south of the 26th parallel or $1,000,000 north of it, so a package in Perth at $700,000 qualifies with room to spare. A buyer who signs without RevenueWA's pre-approval pays the general rate at settlement and claims the first home owner rate back as a refund. Tasmania charges its general scale on the land and pays $20,000 for a new home completed within 24 months. The ACT's Home Buyer Concession Scheme covers residential land as well as homes, so an eligible buyer pays nothing on the block.