A foreign person buying a new $1 million home pays between 1.51% and 10.51% of the price more than an Australian resident, depending on the state or territory. Most of that gap is a state duty surcharge, which six states introduced between 2015 and 2019 and now set at 7% to 9% of the price. The rest is a Commonwealth application fee, $15,100 at $1 million in the June quarter of 2026. The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory levy no surcharge, so a foreign buyer there pays the fee alone.
The node’s inputs are statutory rates that change on dates set by law. A standardised score would reflect when each law commenced, not how conditions compare with the past, so none is published.
What is being measured
A foreign person who buys a home in Australia can face two costs that an Australian resident does not. The first is a state duty surcharge: an extra transfer duty, set as a percentage of the price, charged on top of the ordinary stamp duty every buyer pays. The second is a Commonwealth application fee, paid to have the purchase considered under the foreign investment rules. For a new dwelling costing $1 million or less that fee was $15,100 in the June quarter of 2026. A buyer in a development whose developer holds a new dwelling exemption certificate does not generally need individual approval, and so pays no individual fee; the figures here assume an individual application.
This piece adds the two for a single reference purchase: a new dwelling costing exactly $1,000,000. It is a benchmark for comparing jurisdictions, not a typical purchase. It covers new dwellings because foreign persons have been barred since April 2025 from buying established homes, with limited exceptions. Each state defines a “foreign person” for its own surcharge, and the definitions are not identical. The figures come from the Foreign Investment Policy (21340) register, which sets out each rate in force at the end of every quarter since 2011, with the law that set it.
The extra cost today
In the June quarter of 2026, a foreign buyer of a $1 million new home paid 10.51% of the price more than a resident in New South Wales, 9.51% in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, 8.51% in Western Australia and South Australia, and 1.51% in the two territories.
Extra cost of a foreign purchase of a $1m new home, June quarter 2026
State duty surcharge plus the Commonwealth application fee, as a share of a $1,000,000 price. Source: APN Foreign Investment Policy (21340) register.
On a $1 million purchase, the New South Wales figure is $105,100 on top of what a resident pays, and the territories’ figure is $15,100. The ordinary transfer duty that every buyer pays is not included, and neither are the annual land tax surcharges some states charge foreign owners.
How the gap was built
Neither cost existed in 2011. Victoria was first, with a 3% additional duty from 1 July 2015, raised to 7% in 2016 and 8% in 2019. New South Wales followed on 21 June 2016 at 4%, doubled it to 8% in 2017 and raised it to 9% from 1 January 2025. Queensland began at 3% in October 2016 and reached 8% in July 2024. South Australia introduced 7% from 1 January 2018, Tasmania 3% from July 2018 and 8% from April 2020, and Western Australia 7% from 1 January 2019. Across the six states that is 13 dated introductions and increases, and none has been reduced.
State duty surcharge on foreign purchases of residential property, 2011 to 2026
Rate in force at the end of each quarter. The ACT and the NT levy no surcharge and are not shown. Source: APN Foreign Investment Policy (21340) register, from each state’s legislation.
The Commonwealth fee arrived in the same period. Application fees for residential purchases began on 1 December 2015, at $5,000 for a purchase of $1 million or less. They are indexed to inflation each July, and on 29 July 2022, after that year’s indexation, they were doubled: the fee at $1 million went from $6,350 at the end of June to $13,200. When fees for established dwellings were tripled in April 2024, new dwellings stayed on the ordinary schedule.
The extra cost, split into its two parts, June quarter 2026
State duty surcharge and Commonwealth application fee, each as a share of a $1,000,000 price. Source: APN Foreign Investment Policy (21340) register.
| Jurisdiction | Surcharge history | Surcharge, June quarter 2026 | Extra cost of a $1m new home | Law |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 4% from 21 June 2016; 8% from 1 July 2017; 9% from 1 January 2025 | 9% | 10.51% | Duties Act 1997 (NSW) s 104U |
| Victoria | 3% from 1 July 2015; 7% from 1 July 2016; 8% from 1 July 2019 | 8% | 9.51% | Duties Act 2000 (Vic) s 28A |
| Queensland | 3% from 1 October 2016; 7% from 1 July 2018; 8% from 1 July 2024 | 8% | 9.51% | Duties Act 2001 (Qld) s 244 |
| Tasmania | 3% from 1 July 2018; 8% from 1 April 2020 | 8% | 9.51% | Duties Act 2001 (Tas) s 30C |
| Western Australia | 7% from 1 January 2019 | 7% | 8.51% | Duties Act 2008 (WA) s 205O |
| South Australia | 7% from 1 January 2018 | 7% | 8.51% | Stamp Duties Act 1923 (SA) ss 72, 102AB |
| Australian Capital Territory | No surcharge | 0% | 1.51% | Duties Act 1999 (ACT): no surcharge |
| Northern Territory | No surcharge | 0% | 1.51% | Stamp Duty Act 1978 (NT): no surcharge |
Extra cost is the state duty surcharge plus the Commonwealth application fee of $15,100 for a new dwelling costing $1 million or less, as a share of a $1,000,000 price, June quarter 2026. Source: APN Foreign Investment Policy (21340) register, from each state’s legislation and revenue office and the Commonwealth fee instruments.
Since the June quarter
The Commonwealth fee was indexed again on 1 July 2026. Its schedule of fees for 2026–27 sets the fee for a new dwelling costing $1 million or less at $15,600, which adds 0.05 of a percentage point in every jurisdiction: 10.56% in New South Wales and 1.56% in the territories. The New South Wales budget for 2026–27 states its surcharge as 9%. Western Australia introduced an exemption from its surcharge, for transactions from 7 May 2026, for foreign buyers who build and sell new dwellings within two years; it applies to builders adding supply, not to a buyer of a finished home.
Why $1 million, and what changes at other prices
The state surcharges are flat percentages, so they scale with the price. The Commonwealth fee does not: it rises in steps, from $4,600 below $75,000 to $15,600 up to $1 million and $31,300 up to $2 million in the 2026–27 schedule. The same $15,600 applies to any new home from $75,000 to $1 million, so the fee is a larger share of a cheaper home, and $1 million is where its share is lowest within that band. Just above $1 million the fee roughly doubles, so the benchmark figure does not carry over to dearer homes.
What this does not show
These are statutory rates, not outcomes. The register says nothing about how many foreign persons buy homes, how much the surcharges raise, or whether they change prices or supply, and no such claim is made here. It does not add the jurisdictions into a national figure, because a single number would depend on where purchases happen. Exemptions and concessions differ by state, for example for developers, build-to-rent projects and retirement villages in New South Wales, and a particular purchase may pay less than the rate shown. Nothing here is tax or legal advice.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
