First home owner rate in Western Australia
Since 7 May 2026 a first home in WA carries no transfer duty up to $600,000, and a reduced rate takes over until $800,000.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Methodology
A first home owner in Western Australia pays no transfer duty on a home worth up to $600,000, or on vacant land worth up to $450,000, for transactions from 7 May 2026. Above those values RevenueWA applies the first home owner rate (FHOR): $16.15 for every $100 above $600,000 on a home, up to $800,000, and $20.14 for every $100 above $450,000 on land, up to $550,000. Past those caps the general rate applies to the whole value. A buyer paying $700,000 for an existing house in Perth therefore pays $16,150 instead of $27,265. Eligibility follows the First Home Owner Grant rules, but established homes qualify for the rate even though they do not attract the grant. Without pre-approval, the general rate is paid at settlement and a reassessment is requested afterwards. A foreign co-buyer still pays the 7 % foreign transfer duty on their share.
WA first home owner rate on your price
Duty at the first home owner rate
$16,150
| Same purchase at the general rate | $27,265 |
| Saved | $11,115 |
| Rule | First home owner rate |
| First home owner grant | $0 |
Two thresholds, two per-$100 rates
The first home owner rate is not a discount on the normal scale. It replaces the scale with a much simpler one: zero up to a threshold, then a single high marginal rate on every $100 above it, until the value where the result catches up with the general rate. RevenueWA publishes one pair of figures for a home and another for a block of vacant land on which you will build.
| Purchase | No duty up to | Rate above that | Rate ends at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home (new or established) | $600,000 | $16.15 per $100 | $800,000 |
| Vacant land for a first home | $450,000 | $20.14 per $100 | $550,000 |
The high marginal rate looks alarming at first glance, but it is applied only to the slice above the threshold. On a $700,000 home the slice is $100,000, which produces $16,150. The general scale would charge $27,265 on the same house, because it taxes the entire value from the first dollar.
What a first home costs in duty, price by price
The table compares the first home owner rate with the duty an owner-occupier who has owned before would pay, on an established or new home. The figures come from the engine behind the calculator, which rounds each band to the next $100 as RevenueWA does.
| Home price | First home owner rate | General rate | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $550,000 | $0 | $20,140 | $20,140 |
| $600,000 | $0 | $22,515 | $22,515 |
| $650,000 | $8,075 | $24,890 | $16,815 |
| $700,000 | $16,150 | $27,265 | $11,115 |
| $750,000 | $24,225 | $29,741 | $5,516 |
| $800,000 | $32,300 | $32,316 | $16 |
| $850,000 | $34,891 | $34,891 | $0 |
The saving peaks at the exemption threshold, where a buyer pays nothing instead of $22,515, and then shrinks steadily. By $800,000 it is down to a few dollars, and at $850,000 there is none at all. A buyer comparing a $780,000 house with an $820,000 one should know that both now pay close to the general rate: the real value of the FHOR is concentrated between roughly $500,000 and $700,000.
Land to build on
A block of vacant land bought to build a first home has its own, lower thresholds. The rate per $100 is steeper because the window is narrower: $100,000 between the nil band and the end of the concession.
| Land price | First home owner rate | General rate |
|---|---|---|
| $400,000 | $0 | $13,015 |
| $450,000 | $0 | $15,390 |
| $500,000 | $10,070 | $17,765 |
| $550,000 | $20,140 | $20,140 |
| $600,000 | $22,515 | $22,515 |
Building later does not change the duty on the land, which is assessed on the land price alone. The home you build on it is a new home for the First Home Owner Grant, which is separate from the duty and has its own cap. To compare land in other states, the vacant land guide lines up all eight.
Duty on a block of land
First home buyer building
$0
| Buyer who is not a first home buyer | $13,015 |
| Investor | $13,015 |
| Rule for the first home buyer | First home owner rate: no duty |
What changed on 7 May 2026
Between 21 March 2025 and 6 May 2026 the home thresholds were lower and depended on location: no duty to $500,000, and the concession ending at $700,000 in the Perth and Peel regions or at $750,000 in the rest of the state. Since 7 May 2026 one statewide pair applies, $600,000 and $800,000. A regional buyer looking at a $760,000 house was outside the concession under the old rules and is now inside it, paying $25,840. A Perth buyer at $600,000 has gone from paying something to paying nothing.
The First Home Owner Grant moved on the same date. For transactions from 7 May 2026 the $10,000 grant on a new home applies up to $800,000 south of the 26th parallel, which takes in Perth, and up to $1,000,000 north of it; before that, the cap was $750,000. Notice that the grant cap in the north sits above the duty concession: a $950,000 new home in Karratha may carry the grant while its duty is assessed at the general rate.
Who qualifies, and how the money moves
RevenueWA ties eligibility for the first home owner rate to the First Home Owner Grant criteria, with the important difference that the property may be an established home. Those criteria are set out on the RevenueWA grant page; this calculator assumes you meet them and does not test them.
Timing matters more than most buyers expect. If the transaction has not been pre-approved for the rate, transfer duty is paid at the general rate at settlement and RevenueWA reassesses it at the first home owner rate afterwards. At $600,000 that is $22,515 paid and later returned, at $720,000 $8,835. Budget for the higher figure if pre-approval is not in place before settlement.
Buying with a foreign partner: the Kate and Simon example
The fact sheet works through a couple, Kate and Simon, who buy a $400,000 home as joint tenants. Simon is a foreign person. Foreign transfer duty of 7 % is charged on the value of the interest he acquires, half the home, which comes to $14,000. The surcharge is assessed on top of transfer duty and follows the share, not the couple. If every buyer is foreign the surcharge reaches $28,000 on the same home and the general rate applies to the duty itself, $41,015 in all. The foreign buyer guide compares the surcharges state by state.
First home or off the plan?
A buyer who signs for an apartment before construction may also meet the conditions of the WA off-the-plan concession. The two reliefs use different mechanics, one a separate scale, the other a percentage of general duty, and the calculator does not combine them: RevenueWA decides how they interact on a given contract. For most first home buyers under $600,000 the question does not arise, since there is no duty to reduce.