First Home Buyers Stamp Duty NSW and the Grant

First home buyers in NSW pay no transfer duty, the tax most people still call stamp duty, on a home worth up to $800,000. Between $800,000 and $1 million there’s a concession, and from $1 million there’s nothing. That’s the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme, and those thresholds have applied to contracts exchanged since 1 July 2023.

The grant is a separate thing. It’s smaller than the duty saving, it only applies to new homes, and it has its own ownership test.

What the concession is worth

At the bottom of the band it’s worth the whole duty bill. After the deposit, duty is usually the biggest cash cost of buying. Ordinary transfer duty on an $800,000 home is $30,187 on our stamp duty calculator, which uses the Revenue NSW brackets for 2026-27, and an eligible first home buyer pays none of it.

Above $800,000 the saving shrinks quickly. A $900,000 home carries $34,687 of ordinary duty and $19,593 with the concessional rate. At $990,000 it’s $37,227 against $38,737, so the concession is worth about $1,500. In the band, each extra $10,000 on the price adds roughly $1,960 of duty. That’s on top of the extra $10,000 itself.

So the concession is worth chasing at the bottom of the band and barely matters near the top. Below the line every dollar of duty disappears; above it, price and duty climb together faster than most buyers expect.

Who qualifies

The test is stricter than most people assume. You and your spouse or partner must never have owned or co-owned residential property in Australia, never have had the exemption or concession before, be over 18 and buy as individuals rather than through a company or trust. At least one buyer has to be an Australian citizen or permanent resident. An investment unit you bought years ago and never lived in still counts as owning property, which rules plenty of people out.

Then there’s the residence requirement. For contracts from 1 July 2023, one of the eligible buyers must move in within 12 months of settlement and live there for at least 12 continuous months. If your plans change and you can’t, Revenue NSW says to tell it immediately so the correct duty can be paid, or you may face interest and penalties. Permanent members of the Australian Defence Force on the NSW electoral roll are exempt from it. In exceptional circumstances Revenue NSW can shorten or waive the requirement, on a written request that explains why.

Buying with a parent is allowed. If the eligible buyers take at least half of the property, the scheme can still apply, and the parent pays duty on their share. Revenue NSW calls this a shared equity arrangement. It doesn’t work if the ineligible buyer is your spouse, which includes a de facto partner but not a husband or wife you’ve separated from, don’t live with and don’t intend to.

Vacant land

If you’re buying land to build on, the thresholds are lower: exempt up to $350,000 and a concession up to $450,000. On the North Shore land at that price is rare, so most first home buyers here use the home thresholds, which apply to an existing house or unit as well as a new one.

The grant only applies to new homes

The First Home Owner (New Homes) Grant is $10,000, and it isn’t available for established homes. A newly built or substantially renovated home must cost no more than $600,000, while land plus a building contract can total up to $750,000. It can be paid on top of the duty exemption or concession. Substantially renovated means most of the home was removed or replaced, and nobody lived in it during the work. If you need the grant at settlement, you apply through the lender providing your loan.

Its ownership test is different. You’re out if you or your spouse owned residential property in Australia before 1 July 2000, or lived for six continuous months in a home you owned after that. That means someone who bought an investment property and never lived in it can still get the grant while missing out on the duty concession. Few people expect it.

What it means on the North Shore

Here’s where local prices land. The NSW Communities and Justice figures for the December 2025 quarter put the median unit in postcode 2077, which covers Hornsby and Waitara, at $743,000, inside the full exemption. Epping’s 2121 median unit was $815,000, where the concession leaves about $2,939 of duty. In Chatswood’s 2067 the median unit was $1,170,000, and in Lindfield’s 2070 it was $1,230,000, both past the band, and the house medians are far above it everywhere on the North Shore. Those are postcode medians, not suburb ones.

The grant barely reaches here. Hardly any new apartment on the North Shore sells under its price cap, so for buyers in this area the duty scheme is the NSW help that counts, and it’s the one with the residence rule attached.

How it stacks with the federal schemes

The NSW duty relief sits alongside the federal help. The 5% Deposit Scheme removes lenders mortgage insurance on a small deposit, Help to Buy puts the government in as a part-owner for citizens who qualify, and the First Home Super Saver scheme can build part of the deposit inside super. Each has its own price caps and rules, and a buyer can sit inside one and outside another.

The 5% Deposit Scheme’s NSW cap is $1.5 million in Sydney, while Help to Buy’s is $1.3 million in Sydney and the regional centres. Both sit well above the $1 million where the duty concession ends. That gap is where a lot of North Shore first buyers land: inside a federal scheme, but paying full duty. Run both numbers before you bid.

How you apply

You apply after exchange, and the application form and proof of identity go to your solicitor or conveyancer, according to Revenue NSW. There are substantial penalties for false or misleading claims, and Revenue NSW says it checks applications against data from other agencies and businesses.

Foreign buyers and New Zealanders

Qualifying for the scheme doesn’t remove surcharge purchaser duty. Revenue NSW’s own example is a New Zealand citizen who’s eligible for the concession but still pays the surcharge on their share if they aren’t ordinarily resident in Australia. The surcharge is charged on top of any transfer duty. If either of you isn’t an Australian citizen or permanent resident, check this before you budget.

Our view

Our view, which plenty of agents won’t like: don’t stretch to a property just under $1 million because of the concession. Near the top of the band it saves a few thousand dollars, which a slightly lower offer would do too. Where it changes a budget is between $800,000 and about $900,000, and that’s where we’d rather spend the time. Anywhere in the band, taking $50,000 off a $950,000 price cuts the duty under the concessional rate by about $9,800 as well. Negotiation pays twice there.

Sina puts the duty, or the lack of it, into the funds-to-complete before we talk to any lender, because a concession you turn out not to qualify for is money you need on settlement day. What we can’t do is decide if you’re eligible. Revenue NSW does that, and if your ownership history is complicated, a conveyancer should look at it before you exchange. If you’re buying near the exemption line, run the numbers in the stamp duty calculator at a few prices before you bid.