Australia-wide · Foreign purchasers
Foreign buyer stamp duty calculator
In six states, foreign buyers pay a surcharge of 7% to 9% of the whole price on top of ordinary stamp duty.
FY 2026-27 rates · verified against the official sources.
Your tally
Stamp duty incl. foreign surcharge
$95,437
No foreign surcharge
$67,500 of it is the 9% foreign surcharge — more than the ordinary duty underneath.
Duty anyone pays $27,937Surcharge because you are foreign $67,500
How it’s made up
Assumes one foreign buyer taking the whole property. Every surcharging state charges a mixed purchase only on the foreign buyer’s share, and Victoria and Tasmania exempt a couple buying the home they will live in when one of them is not foreign. State duty only: federal application fees, annual land tax surcharges and the established-home policy sit on top — see the notes below. Transfer and registration fees are on each state's calculator.
Established homes are off the table until 30 June 2029, for most foreign buyers.
Since 1 April 2025 it has been federal Government policy to refuse foreign persons, temporary residents and foreign-owned companies included, approval to buy an established dwelling. The 2026-27 Budget extended it from 31 March 2027 to 30 June 2029. It is policy applied through foreign investment screening, not a date in an Act. So for most foreign buyers, the calculator above prices a new dwelling, an off-the-plan purchase or vacant land.
The exceptions are narrow: redevelopments adding at least 20 dwellings, commercial-scale housing such as build-to-rent, retirement villages and student accommodation, and employers housing Pacific and Timor-Leste workers. Permanent residents, New Zealand citizens eligible for a special category visa and Australian citizens living abroad need no approval. Neither does someone buying as joint tenants with an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealander spouse, though not as tenants in common. New dwellings, off-the-plan and vacant land stay open, with approval and its fee.
The surcharge in every state on $750,000
| State | Rate | Surcharge at $750,000 | Official name |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | 9% | $67,500 | Surcharge purchaser duty |
| VIC | 8% | $60,000 | Foreign purchaser additional duty |
| QLD | 8% | $60,000 | Additional foreign acquirer duty (AFAD) |
| TAS | 8% | $60,000 | Foreign investor duty surcharge |
| WA | 7% | $52,500 | Foreign transfer duty |
| SA | 7% | $52,500 | Foreign ownership surcharge |
| ACT | None | $0 | No duty surcharge |
| NT | None | $0 | No duty surcharge |
The surcharge is charged on the full dutiable value — not the excess over a threshold — which is why it usually exceeds the ordinary duty underneath it.
Choosing to live in the home changes the calculator’s answer only in Victoria, where owner-occupier rates apply to a home up to $550,000. Queensland’s home concessions need Australian citizenship or permanent residency on contracts from 1 August 2026, so the calculator uses Queensland’s standard rates either way.
Who actually counts as a foreign person?
Each Act draws the line differently, and the differences decide real purchases.
- Never surcharged as individuals: Australian citizens, wherever they live.
- Permanent residents: not foreign in Victoria, Queensland, WA, SA or Tasmania, wherever they live. NSW alone adds a residence test: a permanent resident must have spent 200 days in Australia in the year before the contract, or live in the property as their home for 200 continuous days in the first year.
- New Zealand citizens: spared in NSW, Queensland, WA, SA and Tasmania if they hold a special category visa, with NSW adding its 200-day or move-in test. Victoria has dropped the visa test for settlements from 26 November 2025: it now asks for six months of ordinary residence in the year either side of settlement.
- Temporary visa holders (students, 482 workers, bridging visas) are foreign almost everywhere, with exceptions. NSW treats partner (provisional) visa holders like permanent residents, and NSW and Queensland exempt retirement-visa holders who live in the home.
- Companies: foreign if incorporated overseas (Victoria, Queensland, WA, SA, Tasmania), or if foreign owners hold 50% or more (more than 50% in Victoria). NSW uses the Commonwealth’s lower test: one foreign holder with 20%, or foreign holders together with 40%.
- Discretionary trusts: in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania a single potential foreign beneficiary can make the whole trust foreign, and NSW also requires a deed that cannot be amended to let one in. Queensland, WA and SA look instead at who takes in default and who controls the trust; SA also looks at the trustee, the appointor and anyone named in the deed.
- Couples: a citizen buying with a foreign spouse pays the surcharge only on the foreign partner’s share. Victoria and Tasmania waive even that when the couple buy the home together and live in it. NSW, Queensland, WA and SA do not.
The full foreign-buyer cost stack
Four layers, in order: ordinary transfer duty (what any buyer pays — every state calculator on this site itemises it); the state foreign surcharge above; federal ATO/FIRB approval fees, tiered by price and indexed every year; and then the annual holding surcharges — foreign-owner land tax loadings in NSW (5%), Victoria (4%), Queensland (3%), Tasmania (2%) and the ACT (0.75%), plus the federal vacancy fee if the dwelling sits empty. The purchase-day bill is once; the land tax surcharge arrives every year — the land tax comparison shows that side of the ledger.
Frequently asked questions
Can foreign buyers still purchase property in Australia?
How much extra stamp duty do foreign buyers pay?
Who counts as a foreign person for the surcharge?
Are there federal costs on top of the state surcharge?
Do foreign buyers get first home buyer concessions?
Keep tallying
Sources
- Treasury — Guidance Note 6: Residential Land, version 5 (1 July 2026)
- Treasury — Guidance Note 2: Key Concepts, version 5 (exemptions for permanent residents, New Zealanders, citizens abroad and joint-tenant spouses)
- Budget Paper No. 2, 2026-27 — extending the ban on foreign purchases of established dwellings
- ATO — Extending the ban on foreign purchases of established dwellings
- ATO — Types of property a foreign person can buy
- Duties Act 1997 (NSW), Chapter 2A; Duties Act 2000 (Vic); Duties Act 2001 (Qld); Duties Act 2001 (Tas)
- RevenueWA — Foreign transfer duty fact sheet; RevenueSA — Foreign ownership surcharge
Surcharge rates verified 2026-08-27 against each revenue office's FY 2026-27 schedule — see the state calculators for their source lists. The federal policy and each state’s foreign-person test were read from the sources above on 2026-10-05. General information only — not financial, legal or migration advice.