Duty calls

Talking about stamp duty is a bit like having the birds and the bees talk with your kids: no one wants to listen, and it's kind of gross. But we have to have the chat. Read on brave people…

Sadly it’s a kind of tax placed on large acquisitions, like buying a property. The more expensive the property, the greater the stamp duty you have to pay. This means that if you are a first-time buyer, you need to not only save for the property, but for the stamp duty as well. This sucks. You can’t even pay it off over time: it must be paid within 90 days of buying your place (or upon settlement if you settle before 90 days is up).

How much do I need to save?

You can work out how much you’ll need for stamp duty, by playing around with our online stamp duty calculator here. For example, if you’re a first home buyer and you’re planning on living in your new home, you’ll be looking at around $12,500 in stamp duty on a purchase price of $600,000.

A bit of good news

House and Land packages are a great way to you if you want to save on stamp duty. This is because when you’re building a new house you only pay stamp duty on the value of the land component, not the house and land components, as the home hasn’t been built yet.

The good news doesn’t stop there though. New South Wales offers stamp duty concessions for first-time buyers on new homes; full exemption for a home valued up to $550,000 and concessional rates for new homes valued between $550,000 and $650,000. There's also a Givernment New Home Grant Scheme which provides a grant of $5,000 towards the purchase of new homes, homes off the plan and vacant land on which a new home will be built.

Combine this with the Thrive First Home Owners Grant (yep, it’s an additional $10k on top of the Government’s First Home Owner Grant) or the Thrive Investor Grant ($10,000 for non-first home buyers) and you’ll be well on your way to your new home!