Key takeaways
- Victoria's off-the-plan duty concession now runs to 21 April 2027, extended in the 2026–27 Budget of 5 May 2026 (pending legislation). It covers strata apartments and townhouses only — not detached houses — and is available to foreign buyers, though the 8% foreign purchaser additional duty still applies.
- Duty is calculated on land value plus construction completed at the date of contract, not the full purchase price — so signing earlier in the build cycle means a lower dutiable value.
- The concession is open to all buyers, including investors and foreign purchasers, not only first-home buyers.
- On a A$620,000 apartment the illustration here shows duty falling from about A$31,800 to A$3,800 — a saving near A$28,000.
- Detached houses and house-and-land packages are excluded. This is the single clearest financial reason a foreign buyer chooses strata over land.
Victoria's off-the-plan duty concession is real, it is open to investors and foreign buyers, and it runs until 21 April 2027.
It also saves you considerably less than most articles about it imply — because the single largest charge a foreign buyer pays is calculated before the concession is applied. That is the part worth understanding, so let me do the mechanics properly.
How the concession actually works
Normally, land transfer duty is calculated on the full purchase price. Under the concession, the dutiable value is reduced by the construction work still to be done after you sign.
Buy early in the build cycle and most of the construction is still ahead of you, so the dutiable value is small. Buy close to completion and most of the work is already done, so the reduction is small.
| Detail | |
|---|---|
| Applies to | Residential lots in strata subdivisions with common property — apartments, units, some townhouses with a shared driveway |
| Who qualifies | All purchasers, including investors, companies and trusts |
| Price cap | None |
| Contract dates | On or after 21 October 2024 and before 21 April 2027 |
| What is reduced | Land transfer duty only |
House-and-land packages on their own title are not strata subdivisions, so they do not qualify under this temporary measure.
The part that matters if you are buying from Singapore
As a foreign purchaser in Victoria you pay two separate charges: land transfer duty, and foreign purchaser additional duty at 8%.
The concession reduces the first. It does not reduce the second. Foreign purchaser additional duty is calculated on the dutiable value before concessions are applied — so on the full purchase price, regardless of how early in the build you sign.
On an A$800,000 apartment that 8% is A$64,000, and no amount of buying early changes it.
What that leaves you saving
Roughly, on that same A$800,000 apartment bought early enough that most construction is still ahead:
- Land transfer duty without the concession: in the order of A$43,000
- With the concession: materially less, because duty is charged on land plus work done to date rather than the full price
- Foreign purchaser additional duty: A$64,000 either way
So the saving is real and worth having — commonly tens of thousands on the general duty component. It is not the "six figures" a promotional piece will suggest, and for a foreign buyer it never removes the largest charge. Get your conveyancer to run the exact figure against the specific contract; the numbers move with the stage of construction.
The deadline has moved three times
| Announced | End date |
|---|---|
| October 2024, when introduced | 20 October 2025 |
| Extended 2025 | 20 October 2026 |
| 2026–27 Budget, May 2026 | 21 April 2027 |
An earlier article on this site told you the concession ended on 20 October 2026 and that you should move before it closed. That was wrong, and I am correcting it here rather than deleting it quietly. Anyone who bought a project they were unsure about because of that date made an A$800,000 decision on a clock that did not exist.
Three end dates in under two years does not mean there will be a fourth — treat 21 April 2027 as real. It does mean "buy before it closes" has already been wrong twice.
Why the timing pressure is overstated
Do not let a deadline drive an A$800,000 decision. If a project is right, the concession is a bonus. If a project is wrong, the concession does not fix it.
There is a second clock that matters far more and gets almost no marketing: until 30 June 2029 you cannot buy established dwellings at all. That shapes what you can buy far more than the concession shapes what you pay — and it also runs for years, so it is not a reason to hurry either.
The trade-off nobody puts next to the saving
To get the largest concession you buy early in the build cycle — which means the longest wait to completion, and the most exposure to the thing that actually derails off-the-plan purchases: the valuation at settlement.
Sign three years out and your bank reassesses both you and the property before releasing funds. If the valuation lands 10% under contract, you find the difference in cash. A A$25,000 duty saving does not cover a A$80,000 shortfall.
That is the honest tension: the concession rewards buying earliest, and buying earliest carries the most risk.
When this concession genuinely helps you
It helps if you were going to buy off-the-plan anyway, the project and the developer stack up, and you can comfortably absorb a valuation shortfall at settlement. Then it is a straightforward reduction in your entry cost.
It does not help if it is the reason you are buying off-the-plan rather than a completed apartment you can inspect, or if the saving is what makes your numbers work. If a deal only works because of a temporary tax concession, it does not work.
What I would do before signing
- Ask the developer what stage of construction the contract will be signed at — this determines the size of your concession
- Have a conveyancer calculate the actual duty, including the 8% foreign purchaser duty on the full value
- Stress-test a 10% valuation shortfall at settlement
- Add the absentee owner land tax surcharge to your annual holding costs
If you want the real number on a specific project
Send me the project and the apartment you are considering. I will come back with the total entry cost — general duty after the concession, the 8% foreign purchaser duty on the full value, and the FIRB fee — next to a net yield rather than a gross one.
You will get one number for what it costs to own it, not a headline about what you saved.