Changes to home concessions from 1 August 2026

Welcome to the Queensland Revenue Office’s first webinar for 2026–27.

I’m Erin and I’m one of the Senior Revenue Officers here at the Queensland Revenue Office’s self assessor management team.

In this session, we will give you an overview of the changes to eligibility for transfer duty home concessions that were included in the 2026–27 Queensland State Budget.

This session contains a lot of information, so if you have any questions at the end, please feel free to contact us after the session at selfassessment@treasury.qld.gov.au or on 1300 300 734. Please keep in mind that we can only provide information and not specific advice.

We are going to start today with an overview of the State Budget initiatives that relate to home ownership and transfer, their effects on the home concessions provisions of the Duties Act 2001 and what these amendments mean in practice for registered self assessors for transfer duty.

On 23 June 2026, the Honourable David Janetzki—Treasurer, Minister for Energy and Minister for Home Ownership—handed down the 2026–27 Queensland State Budget.

This Budget has included a focus on helping Queenslanders unlock the dream of home ownership sooner. This includes changes to the eligibility to home concessions for transfer duty.

As part of these changes, temporary residents purchasing a home, first home or vacant land on which to build a first home will generally not be eligible for a transfer duty home concession and will be required to pay full transfer duty.

These changes will apply to transactions entered into from 1 August 2026.

Government also announced the boosted first home owners grant of $30,000, which previously was scheduled to end on 30 June 2026, will be continued for the next 4 years.

Additionally, government extended the 50% payroll tax rebate for wages paid or payable to apprentices and trainees for a further year through till 30 June 2027.

These initiatives were included in the Revenue (Cost of Living Relief Locked-In Law) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 introduced into the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday 23 June, passed on Friday 26 June and received Royal Assent on Monday 29 June 2026 becoming the Revenue (Cost of Living Relief Locked-In Law) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2026.

So now we have the background let’s take a deeper dive into the changes and what these mean in the context of self assessed transfer duty transactions.

The amendments commencing on 1 August 2026 from the Revenue (Cost Of Living Relief Locked-In Law) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2026 to the Duties Act 2001 will amend the eligibility for transfer duty home concessions. These amendments will target eligibility for home, first home and vacant land transfer duty concessions to Australian citizens, permanent residents and self-funded foreign retirees holding certain legacy visas (subclass 405 or 410) who were already exempt from additional foreign acquirer duty. These visa holders represent a small cohort of retirees holding legacy visa classes that were closed to new applicants following the Australian Government’s 2018–19 Budget.

Other temporary residents will be ineligible for these concessions and will be required to pay transfer duty at standard rates and the 8% additional foreign acquirer duty that applies to residential land purchases by foreign acquirers in Queensland.

Where there are 2 or more transferees and not all are now eligible for the relevant home concession, mixed and multiple claims can still be applied if the eligible criteria is still met for the relevant concessions.

The dates of transactions will be important in applying the new changes. The changes to eligibility apply for transactions signed on or after 1 August 2026. For transactions signed on or before 31 July 2026, the new eligibility criteria does not apply regardless of when the transaction is settled.

These changes will be affected by the introduction of a definition for a ‘specified resident’ in a new section 90A to define the individuals who are eligible for a home concession for transfer duty.

Under this definition, a specified resident means an individual who is (a) an Australian citizen or (b) a permanent resident or (c) a specified foreign retiree under section 246(2).

Nine other sections have been amended to support the inclusion of this new section and definition along with the dictionary of the Duties Act 2001.

The amendments that have been made are to sections 91 through to section 93B to require individuals receiving the concession to be a specified resident as defined by the new section 90A.

Consequential amendments have also been made to sections 94 and 94A as a result of the amendments to sections 93, 93A and 93B. Consequential amendments to section 94 (Concession—mixed and multiple claims for trustees—residential land) and section 94A (Concession—mixed and multiple claims for trustees—vacant land) relating to some of the above amendments.

Schedule 6 of the Act (Dictionary) is also being amended to include the term ‘specified resident’ and include a reference to the definition in the new section 90A.

So what does this mean for you, as a self assessor?

To implement the amendments, changes have been made to a number of approved forms.

Approved forms D2.1 and D2.7 have been updated to ask a question about the eligibility for each transferee for a home-related concession where transactions were entered into on or after 1 August 2026.

In the ‘Claim type’ section of the form, the question ‘When the transaction was entered into, was the transferee an Australian citizen, permanent resident or specified foreign retiree?’ has been added, with a tick box for yes or no to be answered.

This question is only required to be answered if a home-related concession is being claimed.

Updates have also been made to the guides to claiming a home-related concession, which are included at the beginning of both forms D2.1 and D2.7.

Under the ‘Special circumstances’ section of the guides, the guidance around trustees has been updated to confirm that—for a trustee to be eligible for a concession for transactions entered into on or after 1 August 2026—all beneficiaries of the trust must be Australian citizens, permanent residents or specified foreign retirees when the transaction was entered into.

The updated forms will be available from 1 August 2026.

Updates are also being made to QRO Online to similarly ask about eligibility for each transferee and ensure alignment of the information collected with the updated approved forms.

These updates will come into effect from 1 August 2026.

Under these updates, if you enter a document date on or after 1 August 2026 and then if you select a concession, a new eligibility question will appear. This includes when you select any home or vacant land concession.

The eligibility question will ask ‘Is the transferee an Australian citizen, resident or specified foreign retiree?’ with a yes or no check circle for the response.

If the answer to this question is ‘yes’, select the ‘yes’ circle and the concession will be applied to that transferee’s interest being acquired.

If the answer is ‘no’, you need to remove the concession in the ‘Concession type’ field and return it to ‘Select’, as the transferee does not meet the eligibility criteria to claim a concession. This will then ensure the transferee’s interest being acquired is subject to full transfer duty rates that apply.

As the question only applies for transactions signed on or after 1 August 2026, the question will also not appear for transaction dates prior to 1 August 2026.

In addition to the approved forms being available on QRO website from 1 August 2026, updates will also be made to QRO’s website, self assessor toolkits, estimator and online calculator to assist you to correctly apply the new eligibility requirements.

To assist understanding this, let’s run through a case scenario of how to estimate the duty payable for a mixed transaction once the new eligibility changes occur.

On 23 August 2026, Mr and Mrs Smith sign a contract to buy a residence for $1,250,500 to be used as their home with each acquiring a 50% interest. Mrs Smith is an Australian permanent resident, while Mr Smith is not an Australian citizen, permanent resident or specified foreign retiree. However, both parties wish to claim a half-share home concession.

In this scenario, you start by calculating the duty payable on the purchase price of $1,250,500, which is $52,428.75.

To calculate the home concession, you first apply a concessional rate of 1% per $100 for the first $350,000 and then full rates apply from $350,000.01 to $1,250,500.

In this case, this means you start by applying the home concession for Mrs Smith’s half-share of $350,000, which equals $1,750.

You then consider the home concession for Mr Smith’s share. As Mr Smith is not an Australian citizen, permanent resident or specified foreign retiree, he is not eligible for the home concession. Therefore, the duty on his share on the $350,000 is the full amount of $4,550.

To assist you in considering the changes to eligibility for home-related concessions moving forward, a new mandatory question has been added to the calculator for concession eligibility.

To complete a calculation, you will now be asked ‘When the transaction was entered into, were all the buyers Australian citizens, permanent residents or specified foreign retirees?’, with yes and no options to select.

If the answer to this question is ‘yes’, simply select ‘yes’ and proceed with the calculation of duty as normal.

If the answer is ‘no’, you need to follow the guidance that has been added below the question regarding buyers who do not meet the eligibility criteria for the concession and enter the interest for the non-eligible buyer into the ‘No concession claimed’ field before proceeding with the calculation.

This question will only appear for transactions with a transaction date of on or after 1 August 2026.

Let’s now talk about how to use the updated calculator to calculate the duty payable by Mr and Mrs Smith.

You start by entering the transaction date.

As the transaction is dated after 1 August 2026, you would then enter the half-interest share for Mrs Smith as a ‘home concession’. You would next enter Mr Smith’s half-interest share as ‘no concession claimed’ in line with the guidance on screen as Mr Smith does not meet the eligibility criteria and cannot claim a concession.

You would then proceed to add the purchase price as the unencumbered value of the entire property.

Also, please keep in mind that if a transferee is not eligible for a home-related concession like Mr Smith, they may also be required to pay the 8% additional foreign acquirer duty for residential land purchases by foreign acquirers in Queensland.

Before we finish this session, we’d like to go over some common queries about these changes and how home-related concessions work.

1. What happens if someone claims a concession and they are not eligible?

Consistent with current arrangements, the taxpayer has 28 days to notify the Commissioner by completing a Form D2.4—Reassessment of duty for home concessions. The duty amount payable will be subject to unpaid tax interest and penalties where appropriate.

2. What if I calculate a different amount owing tax liability compared to QRO Online?

When the answer to the question ‘When the transaction was entered into were all buyers Australian citizens, permanent residents or specified foreign retirees?’ is ‘no’, you should confirm that (on the document details page in QRO Online) there is no concession type entered for the transferee who is not eligible for a concession. If there is, amend the entry to remove any concession so the duty payable will be calculated based on full transfer duty rates.

3. I have a transaction dated 30 July 2026. Does the change apply?

No. For transactions entered into on or before 31 July 2026, there is no requirement to be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or foreign retiree to be eligible.

Thank you for joining this session on the changes to eligibility for the transfer duty home concessions that were included in the 2026–27 Queensland State Budget.

As noted earlier, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us after the session at selfassessment@treasury.qld.gov.au or on 1300 300 734.

Alternatively, please take a look at the assistance available on QRO’s website.

Thank you.