The cost of buying a home doesn’t end with the purchase price—and stamp duty is proving to be one of the biggest hurdles. Domain’s latest analysis shows that stamp duty on median-priced homes in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane has grown at 2.7 to 3.4 times the rate of incomes since 2000.

 

Breaking it down:

• In Sydney, stamp duty has jumped from 44.5% of gross household income in 2000 to 119.7% in 2024

• In Melbourne, from 36.5% to 109.3%

• In Brisbane, from 19.5% to 66.3%

The culprit is “bracket creep.” With thresholds left largely unchanged until 2019, rising house prices pushed more buyers into higher stamp duty bands.

 

Dr Nicola Powell from Domain says the effect is reshaping decisions: “You will get some homeowners who factor in the cost of stamp duty and stay put. They renovate or extend instead.”

 

For young buyers, this means saving even more to cover upfront costs. For homeowners considering upsizing or downsizing, the stamp duty bill can be enough to stop them from moving at all.