Stamp Duty on Investment Property

Property investors get no stamp duty concessions anywhere in Australia. First home buyer waivers and owner-occupier discounts all require you to live in the property — investors pay every cent, and in one state, more than anyone.

Stamp duty is the state tax on buying property. Here's what investors actually pay, the Queensland trap that catches interstate buyers, and the one genuine consolation buried in the fine print.

Every stamp duty concession in Australia — first home buyer waivers, owner-occupier discounts, off-the-plan sweeteners — comes with the same string attached: you have to live in the property. Investors, by definition, don't. So investors pay the full general scale in every state and territory, no exceptions.

The rates climb in steps like income tax brackets, so on a typical capital-city investment property the bill comfortably runs into the tens of thousands. On a $950,000 property, general rates across the states range from the high $20,000s to $52,070.

Queensland is famous for cheap duty — a $950,000 home costs an owner-occupier just $28,600 there in FY2025-26, the lowest in the country. But that figure is the home concession rate, and it's strictly for people who move in.

Buy the identical house as a rental and you're on the general scale, which is thousands of dollars steeper.

Interstate investors get caught by this constantly — they budget off a mate's owner-occupier figure or a headline comparison, then meet the real number at settlement. Always run the investor rate, not the home rate.

Most states charge foreign purchasers an additional duty surcharge — an extra slice of the purchase price stacked on top of the standard bill, typically several percentage points. On a big-city property, the surcharge alone can exceed the entire base duty bill.

The definitions of who counts as 'foreign' vary by state and can catch temporary residents and certain trust and company structures — surprising people who don't think of themselves as foreign buyers at all.

If there's any overseas element to your purchase — your residency, your co-buyer's, or the trust you're buying through — get specific advice before signing.

Loan interest, agent fees and repairs are deductible against your rent — you subtract them from your income before tax is worked out. Stamp duty is not. It's a capital cost — part of the price of acquiring the asset, not a cost of running it. No yearly deduction, nothing on this year's tax return.

It's the difference between the petrol and the car: running costs are claimable as you go; the cost of the vehicle itself gets dealt with when you sell.

Dealt with through your cost base — the running total of everything the property genuinely cost you: purchase price, stamp duty, legal fees, buying and selling costs, capital improvements.

When you eventually sell, capital gains tax (CGT) — the tax on your sale profit — is charged on the sale price minus that cost base. Pay $40,000 in duty today and your taxable profit on sale is $40,000 smaller — which, after the 50% CGT discount for holding more than 12 months, still claws back a meaningful chunk at your marginal tax rate.

It's a partial refund, years away, paid as a smaller future tax bill. But it's real — provided you can prove it.