Stamp Duty Northern Territory

What is stamp duty? 

Stamp duty – a tax you have to cough up when you’re sealing the deal on a home or making a property officially yours in the Northern Territory (and pretty much everywhere else). 

Stamp duty is just one of the considerations when diving into the home-buying game, and it’s calculated like income tax but with a twist. It’s not a fixed percentage or a straight-up flat fee; it’s a sliding-scale kind of deal. The big player here is the “dutiable value,” which is just a fancy way of saying the property’s worth – be it the purchase price or its market value, whichever hits heavier on the wallet. 

Where your place is planted and what you’re planning to do with it can also throw some extra spice into the mix, shaping up how much of that stamp duty cash you’ll be forking over. As a little bit of good news, stamp duty on transfers was given the axe in the NT in May 2023, and there is the First Homeowner Grant of $10,000. 

How much is stamp duty in NT? 

In the NT, they keep things relatively simple by splitting their stamp duty game into four price brackets  

• If your dream house falls under $525,000, there’s a formula they have to figure out your stamp duty.
• If your spot is rocking a price tag higher than $525,000, they’re ditching the formula and pulling out the percentage calculator. Your stamp duty bill is a percentage of your property. 

To make life a bit easier, we’ve got the details neatly wrapped up in a table below. It’s the cheat sheet for stamp duty in the NT – showing you the lowdown on how the dollars stack up based on the government’s script.  

Who needs to pay stamp duty in NT?

Everyone who wants to buy property in the Northern Territory has to pay stamp duty. The only difference is the amount you pay, which depends on the type of transaction and its overall value. 

However, if it’s your first time buying a home (wow, that’s exciting!) then you might be eligible for concessions such as the First Home Owners Grant (FHOG). It doesn’t exempt you from paying stamp duty, but it can help your finances nonetheless. 

Since 2019, if you’re buying or building a new home in the NT, you can apply for a grant of $10,000. A new home is classified as somewhere that has never been previously lived in or sold as a place of residence. Basically, it has to be all yours from scratch. 

There are a few other requirements which must be met: 

• You’re a FHOG newbie applying for the first time anywhere in Australia
• You’re 18 or over and a regular person (no companies or trusts)
• Plan to nest in your new home for at least six months within a year of purchase
• Never owned Aussie residential property before July 1, 2000 (even if you didn’t live there)
• Never lived in an Australian residential property that you owned on or after July 1, 2000 

When do I need to pay stamp duty in NT? 

Your stamp duty payment will be due within 60 days of your property purchase. One thing to keep in mind – don’t snooze on the payment. If you’re late to the party, they might hit you with penalty tax and interest. Nobody wants that extra bill baggage! 

Are there stamp duty exemptions or concessions in NT? 

If you’re looking at house and land combo in the NT, there’s some good news on the stamp duty front. You might just wiggle out of that stamp duty hassle with a little thing called the House and Land Package Exemption (HLPE).¹NT Gov – Get stamp duty exemption on house and land packages

If you’re snagging a house and land package from a building contractor, and you seal the deal between July 1 2022, and June 30 2027, you could be in for this sweet exemption ride. 

Do foreign buyers pay more Stamp Duty in the NT? 

The Northern Territory is one of only two areas in Australia (the other being the ACT) where there is no stamp duty surcharge for foreign buyers. Elsewhere in Australia, the surcharge can be around 7% or 8% on top of the regular stamp duty payment. But for the NT – it’s zero extra dollars.  

Can I get a Home Loan that covers stamp duty? 

This might sound the ideal way to start your new mortgage but stamp duty being covered all depends on the lender. Check with your lender to see if they’re willing to increase the amount of your loan to cover it. 

Where can I find and compare Home Loans? 

Good news – iSelect has teamed up with Lendi to make your life easier. They’ve got the hookup with 25+ lenders, and they’re in the business of helping you suss out the best home loan fit. Skip the headache of bouncing between a gazillion websites. Head online and do your comparisons.