See what you need saved to buy, beyond the deposit.

Your deposit is the part of the price you pay from your own savings. It is not the only cash you need on the day. Stamp duty and government fees are paid at settlement, and a few services are paid along the way, so the money has to be there before the keys are.

We show the total against a 20% deposit, because 20% is the point where Lenders Mortgage Insurance stops applying. That gives you one clear target rather than a number that shifts every time you change your mind about the deposit. If you have less saved than the target, the calculator says by how much, and shows what buying anyway would actually look like.

Stamp duty, also called transfer duty, is a one-off state tax on the transfer and usually the largest cost after your deposit. It is calculated on a sliding scale, so it climbs steeply as the price rises, and it differs sharply between states. On an $800,000 established purchase it ranges from about $21,850 in Queensland to about $43,070 in Victoria.

That is why the state selector changes your total more than any other input. Because most states re-index thresholds each July, it is worth checking a current figure rather than an old estimate. Our stamp duty calculator breaks the duty itself down further, including investor and foreign buyer scenarios this page does not cover.

Beyond duty, a handful of smaller costs add up. Conveyancing covers the legal transfer of ownership and typically runs $1,500 to $3,500 including disbursements, so we use $2,500 as a planning figure. A building and pest inspection checks the property before you commit, usually $400 to $850, so we use $600. Transfer and registration fees are what the government charges to record the sale, and those we take from your state's real fee schedule rather than averaging them, because they range from about $360 in the Northern Territory to over $8,000 in South Australia. Lender application and valuation fees are commonly waived, so we leave them out rather than guess; ask us what your lender charges.

First home buyers often pay reduced or no stamp duty, which can be the single biggest saving in the whole purchase. In the worked example above, a first home buyer in NSW saves $27,937 in duty alone. The First Home Owner Grant adds a cash contribution on top, but only on new homes, and only under each state's price cap.

An established home does not qualify for the grant. A new build qualifies under one cap, and a house and land package under a higher one. House and land is also the one case where duty is charged on the land alone rather than the whole package, because the land and the build are separate contracts, which is why the calculator asks for your land value separately when you pick it.

If your deposit is under 20%, lenders usually charge Lenders Mortgage Insurance, which protects the lender, not you. The premium rises the smaller your deposit, and disappears once you reach 20%.

There is a trap here worth knowing. Your upfront costs come out of your savings before settlement, so the deposit that actually reaches the property is smaller than what you have in the bank. Someone with $150,000 saved against a $750,000 purchase does not have a 20% deposit once the costs are paid, which is exactly how buyers end up paying LMI they did not plan for. We show LMI separately rather than inside your cash total, because lenders normally add it to the loan.