Victoria’s government introduced a temporary off-the-plan land transfer stamp duty concession starting 21 October 2024.
This duty concession will be valid for 12 months and will allow a 100% deduction of outstanding construction and refurbishment costs when determining the stamp duty owed.
This is currently capped for first-time home buyers and owner-occupiers. To access the concession, the reduced value for stamp duty calculations following the deduction of construction costs must be under thresholds of AUD 750,000 for first-time home buyers and AUD 550,000 for owner-occupiers—otherwise, the concession isn’t available.
The amount home buyers will save depends on the extent of construction. Someone buying an apartment off-the-plan will likely pay about a quarter of the stamp duty they would pay without the off-the-plan concession.
A Victoria resident using this concession who buys off-the-plan before any construction work starts could pay around AUD 28,000 less stamp duty on an AUD 620,000 apartment – with duty slashed from around AUD 32,000 to around AUD 4,000.
The new temporary concession introduces changes that allow:
- Anyone buying an apartment, unit or townhouse off-the-plan can claim the concession—not just first-home buyers and owner-occupiers;
- Thresholds will be removed so the concession is available for apartments, units and townhouses of any value.
