SA stamp duty calculator

How South Australia calculates stamp duty

This stamp duty calculator for SA applies RevenueSA's official conveyance schedule. South Australia has no general owner-occupier discount — but first home buyers building or buying a new home pay no duty at all, at any price.

SA stamp duty is charged on the higher of the price and the market value, on a nine-bracket schedule that climbs to $5.50 per $100 above $500,000. Owner-occupiers and investors pay identical rates and there is no general concession: whoever you are, every dollar above $500,000 is charged at the top rate. Your conveyancer arranges payment of the duty, along with the registration and other transaction fees, on your behalf.

The single, dramatic exception is the first home buyer new-home exemption: since 6 June 2024, an eligible first home buyer pays no duty on a new home, an off-the-plan apartment, or vacant land they will build on — at any price. It pairs with the $15,000 First Home Owner Grant on a new home, which has had no value cap since 6 June 2024. Buy the established house next door instead and the full schedule applies from the first dollar.

There's a reason housing carries the whole load: South Australia abolished stamp duty on commercial property entirely — the phase-out completed on 1 July 2018, making offices, shops and warehouses duty-free to transfer. Residential and primary-production land were carved out of that reform, so they are what the schedule above still taxes.

Exemptions and concessions

The calculator above models the SA stamp duty concessions that turn on who is buying and what they are buying — the ones you can pick in the form:

• My home or an investment — One schedule for both in SA, established first homes included.
• My first home — new — No duty at any price (contracts from 6 June 2024).

Those come from South Australia’s published schedule, and the engine behind them is pinned by tests to the bracket figures in the published schedule.

Other exemptions exist that this calculator does not model, because they turn on facts a calculator cannot see: a transfer between spouses or de facto partners, property passing through a deceased estate, a transfer ordered on the breakdown of a relationship, a family farm, or a concession card. Whether any of those is available in South Australia, and on what conditions, is a question for RevenueSA. We do not guess at eligibility rules we have not verified, so the figure above assumes none of them applies to you.

The same price, in every state

Duty is the one purchase cost that changes completely with the border, and the gap between the dearest and the cheapest jurisdiction on an identical price is routinely tens of thousands. This moves with the calculator above.

SA ranks #6 of 8 for owner-occupier duty at $650,000, cheapest first.

Whole dollars. First home buyer concessions are excluded here because eligibility differs by state and by buyer; the calculator above applies SA's.

Quick answers by price

Every figure comes from the same tested engine as the calculator — the official schedule, not an approximation. Buying with less than a 20% deposit? Add lenders mortgage insurance to your upfront costs.

Worked examples

• Any buyer, $600,000 established home. $21,330 + $5.50 per $100 over $500,000 = $26,830 — first home buyer or not.
• First home buyer, $600,000 new build. $0 — the uncapped new-home exemption saves the full $26,830.
• Foreign investor, $750,000 house. $35,080 duty + $52,500 surcharge (7%) = $87,580.