Key Highlights

  • First-home buyers in Western Australia now pay no transfer duty on homes worth up to $600,000, up from $500,000.
  • The WA Government set out the changes on 29 July 2026 in its 2026–27 housing taxation package.
  • Vacant land bought to build a first home has higher limits too.
  • Above those upper limits, the first home owner concession does not apply and duty is charged at the general rates.

First-home buyers in Western Australia now pay no transfer duty on homes worth up to $600,000, up from $500,000. The change applies to transactions on or after 7 May 2026. Some buyers who settled before the new rates were in place can ask for their duty to be reassessed and refunded. With Perth prices easing in spring, it is worth being clear on which measures are already in force and which still depend on Parliament.

The new first home owner thresholds

The WA Government set out the changes on 29 July 2026 in its 2026–27 housing taxation package. For transactions on or after 7 May 2026, first home owners pay no duty on new or established homes up to $600,000, compared with $500,000 before. A concessional rate now applies up to $800,000, compared with $700,000 before.

Vacant land bought to build a first home has higher limits too. No duty is payable up to $450,000, up from $350,000, and a concessional rate applies up to $550,000, up from $450,000.

Above those upper limits, the first home owner concession does not apply and duty is charged at the general rates.

A refund for some buyers who already settled

The refunds come from the transitional arrangements. According to the WA Government, buyers in eligible transactions up to 28 July that have already settled can ask for a reassessment and refund through RevenueWA connect. That covers people who paid duty under the old thresholds.

Transactions that had not settled can instead be self-assessed at the new rates. In practice, the settlement agent or conveyancer usually handles this.

Hypothetical example: a couple buying their first home sign a contract for an established house in Perth's southern suburbs for $590,000 on 1 June 2026. They settle on 10 July 2026. Because their price was above the old $500,000 nil-duty threshold, they paid concessional duty at settlement.

The grant and off-the-plan changes

The package also lifts the property value cap for the first home owner grant south of the 26th parallel to $800,000. The duty concession is also no longer linked to the grant's value caps. According to the WA Government, this means the two can be assessed separately.

Off-the-plan buyers get an extension. The off-the-plan duty concession has been extended to 30 June 2028 for transactions from 12 March 2026, with higher thresholds, and now covers survey-strata lots.

Law firm HSF Kramer reports that the lower threshold for that concession rises from $750,000 to $800,000 and the upper threshold from $850,000 to $900,000. Buyers of off-the-plan apartments may want to check which of the two concessions gives the better result in their case.

What is law and what still needs a bill

Most of the package is in effect. The first home owner duty thresholds, the transitional refund arrangements, the grant cap change and the off-the-plan extension are all described by the WA Government as applying now.

One measure is different. The WA Government's page says a foreign buyer duty exemption for "build-to-sell" developments is not yet in effect. It depends on the Finance Legislation Amendment (Housing Affordability) Bill 2026 passing State Parliament. Until that happens, foreign buyers of property in those developments cannot rely on the exemption.