Taxes, duties, levies and royalties
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Foreign buyers and land owners

Foreign persons who buy or own residential land in NSW must pay a foreign surcharge on that property.

Find out more about:

A foreign person can be:

  • an individual
  • a corporation
  • a trust
  • a foreign government
  • a government investor
  • a partner in a limited partnership.

Residential land includes:

  • vacant land zoned/designated as residential
  • land on which there are one or more dwellings (includes building under construction)
  • land use entitlement
  • strata lots
  • utility lots

You’re generally considered a foreign person unless you’re:

  • an Australian citizen
  • a New Zealand citizen holding a subclass 444 visa or
  • a permanent resident and you’ve lived in Australia for more than 200 days in the last 12 months from your liability date.

In 2017, amendments were made to provide for surcharge concessions to Australian-based developers who are foreign persons.Find out how the amendments affect transfer duty and land tax.

How the surcharge works

There are two types of surcharge applied to residential land:

  1. Surcharge purchaser duty
  • When you buy or acquire a residential property you must pay a surcharge of 8 per cent, in addition to your transfer duty.
  1. Surcharge land tax
  • You must pay surcharge on the taxable value of all the residential land you own as at 31 December each year, in addition to any land tax you may already pay. You may need to pay the surcharge even if you don’t pay land tax.
Land tax year Surcharge on taxable value of residential land
2018 2 per cent
2017 0.75 per cent