WA Budget Lifts First Home Buyer Duty-Free Threshold to $600,000

Western Australia's 2026-27 State Budget, handed down by Treasurer Rita Saffioti on 7 May 2026, included a $297 million housing tax package that the government described as its third round of stamp duty relief for first home buyers.

From Budget day, first home buyers pay no stamp duty on newly built or established homes valued up to $600,000, up from $500,000, with concessions available on homes up to $800,000, up from $700,000.

What changed

• No duty on vacant land purchases up to $450,000, up from $350,000, with reduced rates up to $550,000.
• The property value cap for the $10,000 First Home Owner Grant rose from $750,000 to $800,000.
• First home buyers building a new home can claim the land duty concession even if the house and land exceed the grant's value cap.
• Off-the-plan relief was extended to survey strata dwellings such as duplexes, triplexes and villas, with no duty on qualifying pre-construction purchases up to $800,000, tapering to a 50 per cent concession above $900,000.

The government said the changes would save buyers up to $22,515 on a new or established home and up to $25,390 when buying land and building, benefiting more than 25,000 first home buyers over four years. About 12,000 of them would no longer pay any stamp duty.

Supply measures

The tax changes were part of a broader housing spend that REIWA put at $4.7 billion over four years. They built on a $2 billion state and federal agreement to deliver more than 11,000 homes exclusively for first home buyers, including:

• $375 million to build 500 affordable homes for first home buyers, available through Keystart's shared equity scheme.
• A $250 million First Home Buyer Commercial Financing Facility for multi-unit developments with affordable homes.
• A $250 million Pre-sale Guarantee to help apartment and townhouse projects meet pre-sale thresholds.

Saffioti called it the biggest ever package to support first home buyers, and Premier Roger Cook said ensuring every Western Australian has a home was his government's priority.

REIWA: already almost redundant

REIWA broadly welcomed the Budget but questioned whether it went far enough. President Suzanne Brown said the new $600,000 threshold was already almost redundant: in the year to April, only 11.7 per cent of dwelling sales in Greater Perth were below $600,000, and on Budget day only 6.5 per cent of active dwelling listings were priced under that level.

The institute has long argued that the thresholds should be pegged to its own data, with the no-duty limit linked to the annual lower-quartile price, which was $760,000 at the end of April, and the concession ceiling to the annual median of $900,000.

Brown said first home buyers might gain more from the higher vacant land thresholds, given an annual median land price of $405,000, and from removing the link between the grant and the duty concession. She also noted that the government had received a $2 billion stamp duty windfall the previous year from bracket creep, and that rising interest rates were likely to temper any inflationary effect of the changes.