For most first home buyers, the biggest surprise isn't the deposit; it's everything sitting on top of it. Stamp duty alone can add tens of thousands of dollars to a purchase, and it lands before you've even collected the keys.
The good news is that Victoria runs several overlapping schemes designed specifically to soften that upfront cost. The less good news is that they're easy to misread, and the difference between a $600,000 purchase and a $610,000 one can be worth thousands of dollars in duty. Here's where things stand for 2026.
Stamp duty: exemption up to $600,000, concession up to $750,000
Eligible first home buyers pay no stamp duty at all on a property valued up to $600,000. Between $600,001 and $750,000, a sliding-scale concession applies, and the discount shrinks as the price climbs toward $750,000. Above that threshold, standard rates apply with no concession at all.
To put the saving in perspective: standard stamp duty on a $550,000 property in Victoria runs to roughly $26,000. A first home buyer purchasing the same property pays nothing.
To qualify, you generally need to:
- Be an Australian citizen or permanent resident
- Be at least 18 years old
- Never have owned residential property anywhere in Australia
- Live in the property as your principal place of residence for a continuous period (currently 12 months)
The First Home Owner Grant (FHOG)
Separate from the stamp duty concession, the FHOG is a $10,000 cash payment for buyers building or buying a brand-new home, anywhere in Victoria.
It applies to properties valued up to $750,000, and the grant can stack with the stamp duty exemption or concession above, meaning a buyer purchasing a new home under $600,000 could realistically access both the full stamp duty exemption and the $10,000 grant in the same transaction.
Note: Victoria previously offered a higher $20,000 grant for regional purchases, but that boost lapsed in mid-2021 and the grant has been a flat $10,000 statewide since.
The FHOG only applies to new or substantially renovated homes that haven't previously been lived in or sold as a place of residence. It doesn't apply to established homes.
Off-the-plan stamp duty concession
Victoria also runs a broader off-the-plan concession, separate from the first-home-buyer schemes above and open to any buyer, not just first-timers. It reduces the dutiable value of an off-the-plan apartment or townhouse by the value of construction still to be completed at the time of contract, in some cases cutting duty by tens of thousands of dollars. This concession has been extended by the state government and is currently set to run to April 2027, though these dates have moved before and are worth confirming at the time of purchase.
Low-deposit pathways worth knowing about
Two federal schemes are commonly used alongside the state concessions above:
- First Home Guarantee lets eligible buyers purchase with as little as a 5% deposit, without paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI). Income limits apply (broadly $125,000 for singles, $200,000 for couples), along with a property price cap, currently around $800,000 in Melbourne and lower in regional Victoria.
- Family Home Guarantee is a 2% deposit pathway for eligible single parents, with its own income cap.
These schemes have limited places each year and are allocated through participating lenders, so timing and lender choice both matter.
Why this is worth getting right before you shop, not after
The thresholds above create real cliff-edges. A property at $605,000 sits in different concession territory to one at $595,000, and a buyer chasing an established home rather than a new one misses the FHOG entirely, even if everything else about their situation qualifies.
None of this is a reason to avoid a property you'd otherwise buy. It's a reason to know before you're at the negotiating table exactly what a given price point will cost you in duty and what grants are actually on offer.
This is general information, not advice tailored to your circumstances. Eligibility rules, thresholds and scheme dates change regularly, and the State Revenue Office Victoria is the authority on current details. If you'd like it modelled against an actual property and your own position, that's a conversation we're set up to have.
Figures and thresholds in this article reflect published rates and schemes as at 2026 and are provided as general information only. Buyers should confirm current eligibility criteria and thresholds with a licensed financial adviser before relying on them.
Articles on this blog are general information only, not financial, legal or taxation advice, and do not account for your personal circumstances. Stamp duty thresholds and lending criteria referenced in them are Victorian and change over time — check the publication date above, and seek advice specific to your situation before acting.
- Published
- Written by
- Dinali Perera
- Reading time
- 3 min