Total Cost of Buying a Home: A Sourced Checklist

In short. Only some buying costs have a published rate you can check: the deposit structure, transfer duty, first home relief, the cost of cooling off, and foreign purchaser duty. Fees, inspections, lender charges and insurance are quoted to you, so get them in writing rather than from an average.

Costs arrive in three waves: before you sign, at signing, and at settlement. The largest one, transfer duty, lands at the end.

Which costs have a rate you can look up?

Buying costs with a published rate
Cost	What sets it
Deposit at exchange	In NSW, 0.25% on exchange, usually 9.75% after⁶.
Transfer duty	Your state's schedule: NSW $1.25 to $5.50 per $100¹, Victoria 1.4% to 6.5%⁷, Queensland $1.50 to $5.75 per $100¹³.
Owner-occupier rates	Victoria applies its concession rates up to $550,000⁸; Queensland applies home concession rates ¹⁴ to a home you live in.
First home relief	No duty up to $800,000² in NSW, $600,000 or less⁹ in Victoria, $700,000 or less¹⁵ in Queensland.
Cost of cooling off	0.25% of the price⁵ in NSW within 5 business days⁴; $100 or 0.2%, whichever is greater¹² in Victoria within 3 clear business days¹¹.
Foreign purchaser duty	Queensland adds 8%¹⁷ on residential land acquired by foreign persons.

What does that look like on a $750,000 purchase?

Take a house in western Sydney at $750,000, bought by someone who is not a first home buyer, with a ten per cent deposit. Three of the numbers are fixed by published rates before anyone quotes you anything.

Published amounts on a $750,000 NSW purchase. The deposit is not a cost, it comes off the price. Duty is a cost, and on this purchase it is larger than everything a conveyancer will charge you combined. Source: NSW Fair Trading⁶; Revenue NSW¹.

Chart data

Item	Amount
Paid at exchange (0.25%)	$1,875
Balance of a 10% deposit	$73,125
Transfer duty, general rates	$27,937

If that buyer cooled off during the five business days, the vendor would keep $1,875 ⁵, and the rest of what was paid comes back.

How much does first home relief remove?

On this purchase, all of the duty. A first home buyer who will live in the property pays nothing up to $800,000² in NSW, so the $27,937 line disappears, and a concessional rate applies less than $1,000,000³. In Queensland the equivalent buyer pays nothing up to $700,000 or less¹⁵, or on a brand-new home with no duty, no value cap¹⁶. In Victoria, relief runs to $600,000 or less⁹ in full and tapers across $600,001 to $750,000¹⁰.

Which is why the first question is not "what will this cost" but "which schedule applies to me". The calculator answers that in about twenty seconds.

What we are not going to guess

These costs are real and you should budget for them, but we have not found published, dated figures we can stand behind, so there are no numbers here:

Conveyancing professional fees, and the disbursements attached to them.
Building and pest inspections, and strata or body corporate report fees.
Lender charges, including application and valuation fees.
Lenders mortgage insurance, where the deposit is small.
Land registry and council certificate charges, which each state sets and revises.
Moving costs, insurance and the first council and water bills.

An invented average for any of these would look more helpful and be less useful. Get three written quotes, and use the fees guide to compare them on the same basis.

When does each one fall due?

Roughly in three waves. Before you sign, you pay for the things that tell you whether to sign at all: contract review, inspections, strata records. At signing or exchange, the deposit. At settlement, the balance of the price, the duty, and your conveyancer's fee and disbursements.

The settlement guide sets out the order on the day, including the statement you should read before the money moves.

Notes and sources

Revenue NSW: Revenue NSW general transfer duty rates for the 2026/2027 financial year, from $1.25 per $100 (minimum $20) up to $52,237 plus $5.50 for every $100 over $1,290,000. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
Revenue NSW: Under the NSW First Home Buyers Assistance scheme, a first home buyer pays no transfer duty on a new or existing home valued up to $800,000. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
Revenue NSW: A NSW first home valued over $800,000 and less than $1 million qualifies for a concessional rate of duty; at $1 million or more no concession applies. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
NSW Fair Trading: Buying a residential property in NSW comes with a 5 business day cooling-off period that starts on exchange and ends at 5pm on the fifth business day. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
NSW Fair Trading: A NSW buyer who withdraws during the cooling-off period pays the vendor 0.25% of the purchase price, which is $250 for every $100,000. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
NSW Fair Trading: In NSW a buyer can pay 0.25% of the price to exchange contracts, with the balance of the deposit (usually 9.75%) payable before the cooling-off period ends. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
State Revenue Office Victoria: SRO Victoria general land transfer duty rates for contracts from 1 July 2021, from 1.4% of the dutiable value up to $110,000 plus 6.5% of the value over $2,000,000. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
State Revenue Office Victoria: Victoria's principal place of residence concession rates apply to a home valued up to $550,000 that you move into within 12 months of settlement and live in for at least a year; above $550,000 general rates apply. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
State Revenue Office Victoria: Eligible first home buyers in Victoria pay no duty on a home with a dutiable value of $600,000 or less. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
State Revenue Office Victoria: Victorian first home buyers pay a reduced amount of duty, calculated on a sliding scale, on a home valued from $600,001 to $750,000. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
Consumer Affairs Victoria: Private sales of residential property in Victoria have a cooling-off period of three clear business days, starting from the date the buyer signs the contract. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
Consumer Affairs Victoria: A Victorian buyer who cools off is refunded any money paid, less $100 or 0.2% of the purchase price, whichever is greater. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
Queensland Revenue Office: Queensland Revenue Office general transfer duty rates: nil up to $5,000, then from $1.50 up to $5.75 for each $100, or part of $100, by bracket. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
Queensland Revenue Office: Queensland home concession rates for a home you will live in: $1.00 for each $100, or part of $100, up to $350,000, then $3,500 plus $3.50 per $100 to $540,000, $10,150 plus $4.50 per $100 to $1,000,000 and $30,850 plus $5.75 per $100 above that. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
Queensland Revenue Office: For agreements from 9 June 2024, a Queensland first home buyer pays no transfer duty on a home valued at $700,000 or less. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
Queensland Revenue Office: From 1 May 2025 a Queensland first home buyer buying a brand-new home, or vacant land to build a home on, may get a full concession that reduces duty to nil, with no value cap. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.
Queensland Revenue Office: An additional 8% duty applies to residential land acquired by foreign persons in Queensland. Official source. Checked 2026-09-12.