Territory charges
Concessions and rates, checked at the source
Zenith Lens does not publish concession amounts, duty outcomes, or general-rates figures, and none of those numbers are “ours”. The ACT Revenue Office assesses conveyance duty and general rates, and it publishes the Home Buyer Concession Scheme. Thresholds, income tests, value tests, and whether any duty is payable move when the Territory changes the rules. The only safe habit is to read the page that matches your transaction date, then ask your conveyancer how that page applies to the contract in front of you.
Where to read it
Start with the Revenue Office explanation of the Home Buyer Concession Scheme, then the page on how to claim it. Keep the contract date beside you, because the office uses the transaction date to decide which rules apply. If a blog, a group chat, or an agent’s text names a dollar cap, treat it as a rumour until you see it on the official page for that date.
Home Buyer Concession Scheme — ACT Revenue Office
Three different bills
Conveyance duty is the Territory’s tax on the transfer. A concession, if you qualify, is a reduction or exemption the Revenue Office administers, not a discount invented by a lender or by this guide. General rates are a separate Territory charge on the property. A lender’s interest rate is a third thing entirely, described on that lender’s own page if you choose to read it, and not reprinted here. Owners corporation contributions, if you are buying a unit, are a fourth invoice from a different payer. Put them on separate lines in your notes so a concession conversation does not swallow the rates notice.
Residence and paperwork
Concession rules often include a residence condition: living in the home, starting within a stated time, and staying for a stated period. The wording depends on the scheme rules for your transaction date. Diary whatever the official page and your approval actually say. A first month spent elsewhere can matter. Ask the Revenue Office or your conveyancer if a travel plan might cut across the condition. Do not ask this website to clear you.
Bring the contract, the buyers’ verification material your conveyancer requests, and any identity documents the office lists. We do not lodge the application for you. If a figure on a notice surprises you, the objection path is the one the Revenue Office describes, on its site, within its timeframe.
What we will not add
No calculator on this page multiplies a price by a rate. No table here shows “the” first-home duty. If we ever wrote a number, it would be stale the next time the Assembly or the office moved the settings. The link above is the update. The glossary defines the words. The desk will point you back to those links if a guide page has drifted.