Here in Brisbane the stamp duty paid on a median priced home is $5688, but down in NSW you’ll be paying $19,385. The equates to 24 per cent of the average Sydney home owner’s annual income of $72,644.
The various governments might sympathise with home buyers about the high price of real estate in this country, but secretly, I think they’re loving it. Since 2003 the NSW Government has collected $18 billion in stamp duty funds, and they’re trying to get all they can before anyone notices that they haven’t changed stamp duty thresholds for owner-occupiers in that time, even though property prices have climbed 20 per cent. The Victorian and Western Australian governments have modified their stamp duty thresholds to match the rise in house prices, whilst here in Queensland first home buyers who purchase an existing home valued up to $320,000, or vacant land up to $150,000, don’t pay any stamp duty.
For further details on the various stamp duty exemptions for all of the states and territories across Australia, have a look at “Stamp duty concessions for first home buyers and owner occupiers in Australia” by Mortgage World Australia.