Five of Australia’s eight states and territories charge foreign or absent owners an extra rate of land tax each year. In the June quarter of 2026 the surcharge was 5% of the land’s taxable value in New South Wales, 4% in Victoria, 3% in Queensland, 2% in Tasmania and 0.75% in the Australian Capital Territory. South Australia and Western Australia levy land tax without a surcharge, and the Northern Territory levies no land tax. The first of the five began in 2016, and each has only risen since.
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
Land tax is an annual state tax on the value of land a person owns, usually excluding their home. Five jurisdictions add a surcharge when the owner is foreign or lives overseas: an extra percentage of the land’s taxable value, charged every year on top of ordinary land tax for as long as the land is held. It is a holding cost, unlike the one-off duty surcharge paid on purchase, which is covered in The Extra Cost of Buying New as a Foreign Person.
The five surcharges do not test the same thing. New South Wales, Tasmania and the ACT apply theirs to foreign persons owning residential land. Victoria and Queensland apply theirs to absentees, broadly foreign citizens who do not ordinarily live in Australia (in Victoria, also absentee companies and trusts), and on all taxable land, not only residential. A foreign citizen living in Melbourne may pay no surcharge, while an absentee holding commercial land in Brisbane may. The figures come from the Foreign Investment Policy (21340) register, which records each rate in force at the end of every quarter since 2011, with the law that set it.
The rates today
For the land tax year containing 30 June 2026, the surcharge was 5% in New South Wales, 4% in Victoria, 3% in Queensland, 2% in Tasmania and 0.75% in the ACT.
Land-tax surcharge on foreign or absentee owners, June quarter 2026
Annual rate, as a percentage of the land’s taxable value, charged on top of ordinary land tax. Victoria and Queensland test absentee status, on all taxable land; Tasmania’s applies only to land acquired from 1 July 2022. South Australia and Western Australia levy no surcharge, and the Northern Territory has no land tax; none of the three is shown. Source: APN Foreign Investment Policy (21340) register.
The Queensland rate is a marginal rate: it applies to the value above the land tax threshold. The taxable value at which Victoria’s surcharge starts was lowered to $50,000 in 2024; when it began in 2016 it was $250,000. Tasmania’s applies only to land a foreign person acquired from 1 July 2022, so land held before then is not surcharged at all.
How the surcharges were built
Victoria was first, with a 0.5% absentee owner surcharge from the 2016 land tax year. It rose to 1.5% in 2017, 2% in 2020 and 4% in 2024, eight times its opening rate. New South Wales introduced its surcharge at 0.75% for 2017, then raised it to 2% in 2018, 4% in 2023 and 5% in 2025. Queensland began a separate absentee surcharge at 1.5% from July 2017, rising to 2% in 2019 and 3% in 2024; before then, absentees paid land tax on the scale for companies and trusts rather than the scale for individuals. The ACT has charged 0.75% since July 2018, set by a new determination each year at the same rate. Tasmania introduced 2% from July 2022.
Land-tax surcharge on foreign or absentee owners, 2011 to 2026
Rate in force for the land tax year containing each quarter end. New South Wales and Victoria assess on calendar years, Queensland and Tasmania on financial years. South Australia and Western Australia levy no surcharge and are not shown. Source: APN Foreign Investment Policy (21340) register.
Across the five jurisdictions that is 13 dated introductions and increases since 2016, and none has been reduced. In mid-2016 only Victoria charged a surcharge; by mid-2019 four jurisdictions did. The largest single increases were 2 percentage points each: New South Wales from 2% to 4% in 2023, and Victoria from 2% to 4% in 2024.
Who is covered has changed too
The rate is not the only setting that has moved. Three changes altered who pays, without changing the rate:
- Queensland, 30 June 2019. Before this date its absentee test could catch Australian citizens living overseas. From the 2019–20 year, citizens and permanent visa holders were excluded, and a surcharge at the same rate was added for foreign companies and trusts. Rates before and after are not strictly comparable.
- New South Wales, 2023 to 2024. From 21 February 2023 the surcharge was not charged to citizens of certain countries with which Australia has a tax treaty. That ended on 8 April 2024, when Commonwealth legislation gave state surcharges priority over the non-discrimination clauses in those treaties.
- Victoria, 1 January 2026. New Zealand citizens are now treated like other foreign citizens for the absentee owner surcharge.
| Jurisdiction | Who pays, and on what | History | Rate, June quarter 2026 | Law |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Foreign persons; residential land | 0.75% from 1 January 2017; 2% from 1 January 2018; 4% from 1 January 2023; 5% from 1 January 2025 | 5% | Land Tax Act 1956 s 5A |
| Victoria | Absentee owners; all taxable land | 0.5% from 1 January 2016; 1.5% from 1 January 2017; 2% from 1 January 2020; 4% from 1 January 2024 | 4% | Land Tax Act 2005 Sch 1 Pt 4 |
| Queensland | Absentees, and from 30 June 2019 foreign companies and trusts; all taxable land | 1.5% from 1 July 2017; 2% from 1 July 2019; 3% from 1 July 2024 | 3% | Land Tax Act 2010 Sch 2 and Sch 3 |
| Tasmania | Foreign persons; land acquired from 1 July 2022 | 2% from 1 July 2022 | 2% | Land Tax Rating Act 2000 s 6A |
| Australian Capital Territory | Foreign owners; residential land | 0.75% from 1 July 2018 | 0.75% | Land Tax Act 2004 s 17E |
| South Australia | — | No surcharge | No surcharge | Land Tax Act 1936: no surcharge |
| Western Australia | — | No surcharge | No surcharge | Land Tax Act 2002: no surcharge |
| Northern Territory | — | — | NIL RETURN (no land tax) | No land tax |
Rate in force for the land tax year containing 30 June 2026. Each is charged on top of ordinary land tax, on the taxable value of the land. Source: APN Foreign Investment Policy (21340) register, from each jurisdiction’s legislation and revenue office.
Why the rates cannot be turned into a bill
A surcharge rate is not a tax bill. Each state values land differently, sets its own thresholds, and grants its own exemptions, for example for a principal place of residence. Victoria’s and Queensland’s surcharges also reach land that the other three do not. Two owners with the same land value in different states can pay very different amounts even where the rates look close, so no dollar comparison across states is made here. For which Acts levy land tax in each state, see Land Tax and Duty in the Statute Book.
The land-tax surcharges are also kept separate from the Foreign Investment Policy (21340) headline, which measures the extra cost of a purchase. Adding an annual rate to a one-off cost would need an assumed land value and holding period.
What this does not show
These are statutory rates, not outcomes. The register says nothing about how many foreign or absent owners hold land, how much the surcharges raise, or whether they affect prices or ownership, and no such claim is made here. It does not add the jurisdictions into a national figure. South Australia’s nil history, and Tasmania’s before 2022, are read from the current Acts rather than from each historical version. Nothing here is tax or legal advice.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
