Buying in Sydney vs the UK: stamp duty and tax

Sydney taxes foreigners hard on the way in and keeps charging every year. Back in Blighty anyone can buy, but living abroad and owning a second home both push the stamp duty bill up.

The short version

On a temporary visa you're a "foreign person" in Sydney: you can only buy new homes or land, you need FIRB approval, and NSW adds a 9% surcharge purchaser duty on top of transfer duty [7][8][9].
Permanent residents living in Australia buy like locals, with none of those extras [8].
In England, anyone can buy, but a non-resident pays a 2% surcharge, and owning a home worth £40,000 or more anywhere in the world (your Sydney flat included) adds the 5% higher rate [1][2].
Selling a UK home from Sydney means a UK capital gains tax return within 60 days of completion, even with no tax due [3].
Selling a Sydney home after you leave can cost you Australia's main residence exemption [10].

Pound conversions use the Bank of England spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = AUD 1.94).

What a Brit can buy in Sydney, compared

Back home, nobody asks about your visa before you exchange contracts. In Sydney, your visa decides almost everything.

On a temporary visa (Skills in Demand, a working holiday, a student visa) you count as a foreign person under the federal rules. Since 1 April 2025 foreign persons have been barred from buying established homes, with narrow exceptions, and the government announced in its 2026–27 Budget that the ban will run to 30 June 2029 [9]. So your choice is a new home or vacant land, with approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board before you're bound [9]. A permanent resident who's ordinarily resident (at least 200 days in Australia in the past year, for Revenue NSW) is treated much like a citizen [8]. Our guide to buying a home in Sydney as a Brit goes through who counts as what.

Ownership itself is familiar. Houses are usually freehold (Torrens title), and flats are strata title, owned outright with a share of the common property run by an owners corporation. No ground rent, and no lease ticking down.

In England and Wales, by contrast, there are no nationality rules. Houses are normally freehold, and most flats are leasehold, with a lease length, service charge and freeholder to check.

Upfront costs side by side

To compare like with like, we've used the same money: £300,000, which is about AUD 581,000. These are our sums from the published 2026–27 rates, before legal fees, surveys and lender costs.

	Sydney: new flat, AUD 581,000	England: house, £300,000
Main purchase tax	Transfer duty: AUD 20,332 (about £10,500) [7]	Stamp Duty Land Tax: £5,000 at standard rates [1]
Foreign or non-resident extra	Surcharge purchaser duty at 9%: AUD 52,290 (about £27,000) [8]	2% non-resident surcharge: £6,000 more [1]
Approval fee	FIRB fee: AUD 15,600 (about £8,100) for a new home up to AUD 1 million [9]	None
Owning another home	No extra duty	5% higher rate if you keep a home worth £40,000+ anywhere [2]
Total as a temporary resident or non-resident	AUD 88,222 (about £45,600)	£11,000, or £26,000 if you keep the Sydney flat
Total as a permanent resident or UK resident	AUD 20,332 (about £10,500)	£5,000, or £20,000 with another home

A few things stand out:

The Sydney surcharge dwarfs the UK one. The 9% foreign surcharge alone is more than either full UK bill for a non-resident with no other home.
The UK's 5% bites harder than people expect. Buy in Leeds while keeping the Sydney flat and HMRC treats it as an additional home, because the test looks at property anywhere in the world [2]. Living abroad as well? That's both surcharges: £26,000 on a £300,000 house.
First-time buyers do better in both places. In England, a non-resident first-time buyer with no other home pays £6,000 on £300,000 [1]. In NSW, citizens and permanent residents may pay less or nothing under the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme, depending on the price.
You can claw some back in England. Spend 183 days in the UK within a year of buying and the 2% can be reclaimed. Sell your previous main home within three years and the 5% can be refunded [1][2], though check how HMRC treats a former main home abroad.

Scotland and Wales do it differently. Neither has a 2% non-resident surcharge. In Scotland, Land and Buildings Transaction Tax on £300,000 is £4,600 for 2026–27, and the Additional Dwelling Supplement adds a flat 8% (£24,000) if you'll own another home. In Wales, Land Transaction Tax on £300,000 is £4,500 at main rates, or £19,950 at the higher residential rates.

Financing: Australian bank or UK lender?

In Sydney, banks set their own rules for temporary residents. Expect questions about your visa's end date, a bigger deposit than a permanent resident would need, and lenders mortgage insurance on smaller deposits. UK income is often discounted, and your UK credit history stays behind. Budget the surcharge and FIRB fee in cash, because they come on top of the price.

Back in the UK, many high-street lenders won't lend to someone living in Australia or won't count income paid in Australian dollars. A smaller group of specialist and private-bank lenders does, usually with a bigger deposit and plenty of paperwork. If you'll repay a sterling mortgage from Australian income, FCA rules can treat it as a foreign currency loan, with warnings when the exchange rate moves a long way. Our guide to UK mortgages for Brits living abroad explains what to expect.

Owning it: property tax and running costs

In Sydney you'll pay council rates to the local council, strata levies on a flat, and possibly land tax:

Your own home is generally exempt from NSW land tax. Investment property pays it above a threshold, which was AUD 1,075,000 of land value in 2025 (about £555,200), at 1.6% plus AUD 100 above that [8].
Foreign owners pay surcharge land tax of 5% of the land value every year, with no threshold, even on a flat [8]. On a flat, your share of the land is valued.
A foreign-owned home left empty for 183 days or more in a year can attract a federal vacancy fee, double the FIRB fee for vacancy years from 9 April 2024 [9].

In the UK you'll pay council tax. If the house sits empty as a furnished second home, councils in England can charge a premium of up to 100% from April 2025, so up to double the normal bill, with exceptions such as up to 12 months while it's marketed for sale or let [5].

Letting the UK home while you're in Sydney? Under the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme your letting agent, or a tenant paying more than £100 a week, takes basic rate tax off the rent unless HMRC approves you on form NRL1 to receive it gross [6]. You still file a Self Assessment return. Our guide to renting out your UK home has the steps. Australia will tax that rent too if you're a full Australian tax resident, with credit for the UK tax.

Tax when you sell

The Australian side

Your Sydney home while you live there is generally covered by the main residence exemption if you're an Australian tax resident.
Sell after you've left Australia and, for contracts from 1 July 2020, you generally can't claim the main residence exemption at all as a foreign resident, unless a narrow life events test applies [10]. That catches plenty of Brits who move home first and sell later.
Withholding at settlement. For contracts from 1 January 2025, the buyer withholds 15% of the price on any property unless you hand over an ATO clearance certificate, which Australian residents can get free [10]. Foreign residents usually can't, and claim it back through a tax return.
Temporary residents are generally only taxed on taxable Australian property, so a gain on your UK home usually isn't taxed in Australia while you hold a temporary visa. Once you're a permanent resident, worldwide gains come in.

The UK side

Selling a UK home while you live in Sydney: non-residents pay UK capital gains tax on UK property and must report every sale within 60 days of completion, even with no tax to pay [3]. For homes owned before April 2015 you generally only pay on growth since 5 April 2015, and private residence relief can cover years you lived there plus the final nine months. Rates are 18% and 24% for 2026–27, with a £3,000 annual exempt amount.
Selling the Sydney home once you're back in the UK: a UK resident pays capital gains tax on overseas property, and may be able to claim relief for tax paid abroad [4]. The gain is worked out in pounds, so currency moves change it.
Private residence relief can cover a home abroad, but for years when you're not tax resident in the country where the home is, you or your partner generally need 90 nights a year there for it to count [4].
The UK–Australia double taxation convention (in force since 2003) decides who taxes first. Broadly, the country where the property sits gets the first bite and the other gives credit.

A tax adviser who knows both countries can check your case before you exchange or settle.

Which makes sense for whom

On a temporary visa for a few years. Renting in Sydney avoids the 9% surcharge, the FIRB fee and 5% land tax every year. Many Brits wait for permanent residence.
A permanent resident settling down. Buying in Sydney costs much the same as for a local, and the home is generally free of Australian tax on sale while you live there.
Keeping the house in Leeds. Letting it works, with NRL1 and a yearly UK return. Buying again in the UK later can mean the 5% higher rate if you still own the Sydney flat.
Planning to come home eventually. Selling Sydney before you leave Australia keeps the main residence exemption in play; selling after you've gone may not.

If your partner is Australian and you might keep a Sydney home when you move back to Britain, our sister site ExpatCooee explains renting out your home while you live abroad from the Australian side. To hear how other Brits have handled the sums, try our community group for Brits in Australia.

Buying in Sydney vs back in the UK: surcharges, stamp duty and the taxman