The deposit is not what buying costs. This adds transfer duty and the other upfront amounts to show the cash you actually need at settlement.
For most Australian purchases the gap between the deposit and the total is dominated by duty, which is why this calculates it from the statutory scale rather than asking you to guess.
Adds transfer duty to your deposit and the other upfront costs, to show the cash you need to complete a purchase.
Which set applies depends on the jurisdiction and the date you enter. Sources last checked 2026-08-30.
Australian Capital Territory — Transfer duty (stamp duty)
1 July 2026 onwards
Taxation Administration (Amounts Payable—Duty) Determination 2026 (DI2026-155)
New South Wales — Transfer duty (stamp duty)
1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027
How to calculate transfer duty — current thresholds and rates
Northern Territory — Transfer duty (stamp duty)
1 July 2025 onwards
Queensland — Transfer duty (stamp duty)
1 July 2024 onwards
Tasmania — Transfer duty (stamp duty)
21 October 2013 onwards
Victoria — Transfer duty (stamp duty)
1 July 2021 onwards
Land transfer duty — non-principal place of residence (current rates)
Land transfer duty — principal place of residence (current rates)
Western Australia — Transfer duty (stamp duty)
7 May 2026 onwards
Deposit amount
The cash you are putting towards the price. What you borrow is the price less this, and that figure drives your LVR.
Conveyancing
A conveyancer or solicitor to handle the transfer. In Australia this commonly runs to somewhere in the high hundreds to low thousands, depending on state and complexity.
Inspections
Building and pest, and a strata report where relevant. Small relative to the purchase and the cheapest insurance available against a very expensive mistake.
Government fees
Transfer registration and mortgage registration, charged by the state land titles office. Separate from duty and much smaller.
Lender fees
Application, settlement and valuation fees where the lender charges them. Lenders mortgage insurance is a larger and separate cost that applies below 20% deposit; it is not included here.
The total cash required is the number to plan against. It is what has to be available at settlement, and it is consistently larger than buyers expect because duty is not financed.
The loan amount is the price less your deposit. Run it through the LVR calculator: if it is above 80% of the property value, lenders mortgage insurance will apply and add several thousand dollars more.
The duty component is calculated from the state scale for your contract date, and shows its source. The other cost inputs are yours — the calculator adds them up rather than estimating them, because they vary too much by state and provider to guess responsibly.
Every figure below is computed by the same calculator on this page, from the inputs described. Nothing here is typed in by hand, so an example cannot disagree with the tool.
A 20% deposit, and the cash required is well above it. The difference between those two figures is what catches most first purchases short.
Transfer duty is resolved from the state, the contract date and any concession you indicated, using the same rule sets as the stamp duty calculator.
Everything else is added as entered. The total is the sum of duty and the cost inputs plus the deposit; the loan amount is the price less the deposit.
How every calculator on this site is built · Regulatory sources
Lenders mortgage insurance is excluded
LMI is priced by the insurer from the LVR and the loan size and can exceed $20,000 on a high-LVR purchase. It is usually capitalised into the loan rather than paid in cash, which is why it is not part of the cash-required figure.
The cost inputs are yours to supply
No default is imposed for conveyancing or inspections. Quoted figures vary widely and a fabricated default would be presented with more authority than it deserves.
South Australia is not supported
For the duty reason set out below.
South Australia returns no result
The duty component cannot be computed for SA because no SA conveyance duty schedule could be verified against an official source. The calculator says so rather than substituting a number.
It does not include moving or holding costs
Removalists, connection fees, council rates adjustments at settlement, and insurance are all real and none of them are here.
Works out transfer duty on a residential purchase from the statutory scale published by the state or territory, for the contract date you give.
Works out the loan-to-value ratio: how much is borrowed as a percentage of what the property is worth.
Works out gross equity in a property, and how much could be released while staying within a loan-to-value ratio you choose.
Works out the regular repayment on a home loan, and what it adds up to in interest over the full term.
This calculator can be embedded on a business website, branded to match it, with a call to action that sends the enquiry to that business rather than collecting anything here.