NSW charging 13x times more tax than in 1990s

State government has been slammed for worsening NSW’s housing affordability crisis amid revelations Macquarie St is squeezing 13 times more tax from each property transaction than in the 1990s.

New figures supplied exclusively to the Saturday Telegraph have revealed stamp duty bills have exploded in both inflation-adjusted terms and as a share of purchase prices.

The typical house buyer across Sydney was this year hit with about $68,000 in stamp duty charges, the PropTrack figures showed.

This was about $63,000 more than the average charge for someone who bought in 1990 – a rise five times larger than inflation.

Increases in average stamp duty charges were even higher in some of Sydney’s inner-ring suburbs, where new buyers were paying over $150,000 more in tax than at the start of the 1990s.

MORE: Epicentre of Sydney’s collapsing home prices exposed

Jacqueline Liu and husband Luke Cai bought a Roseville home and they said the stamp duty was significant. Picture: Jonathan Ng

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Real Estate Institute of NSW chief executive Tim McKibbin said buyers were paying more in property taxes than they should.

Successive governments’ failure to adjust methods for calculating the charges to account for years of price rises amounted to stealth tax hikes, he said.

“It’s hard to take it seriously when the government says they want to help buyers when they artificially inflate the amount buyers have to pay,” Mr McKibbin said.

The NSW government was capitalising on an “essential need”, he added.

“(Property) is a sitting duck for tax. Everybody has a relationship with property,” Mr McKibbin said. “There is no equivalent stamp duty charge when you buy shares, but we pay it for property.”

Premier Chris Minns said he would take action to address housing affordability prior to taking office in 2023. Picture: Izhar Khan

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PropTrack figures showed someone who bought a median-priced Sydney home in 1990 would have paid nearly $5000 in stamp duty on their $187,000 purchase.

A new buyer who bought at the current median house price in 2026 would have paid about $68,000 on their $1.565 million purchase.

Stamp duty is calculated as a percentage of the purchase price and PropTrack revealed someone buying a median-priced home today would be charged a higher proportion of their home’s value than buyers in the 1990s.

This has meant that while prices in 2026 are an average of about seven times higher than in 1990, the tax paid is nearly 13 times higher.

Tax hikes were significantly larger in some of Sydney’s high-growth areas.

The average buyer today pays more in stamp duty than buyers in 1990s, both in nominal terms and as proportion of the purchase price.

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There were multiple areas where the increase in average stamp duty charges was double rises in local prices.

This included in western suburbs Hassall Grove and Mount Annan, where current house prices were about 20 times higher than in 1990, but stamp duty charges were more than 50 times higher.

Other suburbs where increases in the tax charges were double rises in prices included coastal suburbs Freshwater, North Bondi, Bronte and Coogee, along with Quakers Hill in the northwest.

Analysis of ABS revenue and transfer data by Money.com.au and Primara Research showed government reaped the benefit of rising property prices through “a tax that grows faster than the market”.

“The progressive nature of the tax means governments benefit disproportionately every time prices rise,” said Peter Drennan, Primara head of research.

“Buyers aren’t just paying more because homes cost more. They’re being pushed into higher brackets where the effective rate increases, so the tax bill grows faster than the price tag.”

Ray White agent Jessica Cao stamp duty kept prices inflated by discouraged many people from selling.

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Luke and Jacqueline Liu recently purchased a home in Roseville and said rising prices meant they had to accept that their stamp duty charges would go up the longer their search continued.

“It’s a large sum and all these transaction and administration fees certainly accumulate,” Ms Liu said.

A silver lining was that recent conditions were more buyer-friendly, Mr Cai added.

“Over the last two months there has been less people at open homes and it’s obvious that (other) buyers’ confidence has decreased,” he said.

North Shore agent Jessica Cao of Ray White said high stamp duty was eroding housing affordability in ways that extended well beyond the charges themselves.

“It’s a huge reason not to sell,” Ms Cao said, explaining many long-time homeowners remained in homes they wanted to move out of because the stamp duty on their next home would be too high.

This drained desirable areas of listings, keeping prices higher than they would otherwise have been, she said.

A NSW government spokesman said Macquarie St recognised that housing affordality was a “significant challenge” and was focused on “increasing housing supply” and supporting first-home buyers with exemptions on stamp duty for purchases under $800,000.

HOW MUCH MORE STAMP DUTY WE’RE PAYING COMPARED TO 90s (houses)

— With additional reporting by Kaylee Cranley