In brief

• The Budget removes key barriers to buying a home, including abolishing stamp duty for first home buyers.
• It includes measures to support more housing, especially ‘missing middle’ homes.
• It also introduces faster planning and a pattern book of pre‑approved designs to boost supply across Canberra.

The 2026–27 ACT Budget will expand access to secure, suitable and affordable housing across the Territory.

Removing barriers to home ownership 

Stamp duty will be abolished for all ACT first home buyers from 1 July 2026.

Part of the 2026–27 ACT Budget, this change removes one of the biggest upfront barriers to buying a home.

It opens the door for more Canberrans to enter the housing market sooner.

The ACT is the first jurisdiction in Australia to abolish stamp duty for all first home buyers.

Expanded stamp duty exemptions

Stamp duty exemptions will also be expanded for:

• pensioners
• eligible National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants
• all home buyers who have not owned property in the last five years.

Planning reforms

The Budget also includes a major package of tax cuts to support the development of missing middle housing. These include:

• removing stamp duty for owner‑occupiers buying any new unit‑titled property. This means Canberrans who buy a new ‘missing middle’ home to live in, will pay no stamp duty.
• continuing the stamp duty concession for owner-occupiers buying off-the-plan units
• expanding this concession to all turn-key units (a newly constructed unit not sold off-the-plan)
• introducing a time-limited 50% reduction in the codified Lease Variation Charge (LVC) for missing middle developments. This will reduce overall development costs while maintaining a return to the community.

The Canberra House Pattern Book

The ACT Government will also create a Canberra House Pattern Book – a collection of pre-approved plans for ‘missing middle’ homes.

As the designs are pre-approved, projects can proceed without a development application. This will help streamline delivery of missing middle housing, providing greater certainty and speeding up timeframes.

Plans will be chosen through a design competition and will be:

• high-quality
• validated
• ready to build.

Homeowners, developers and builders can access these for $1,000 – a fraction of the cost of commissioning custom architectural plans.

The Pattern Book will fast-track more low-rise ‘missing middle’ homes that are well-designed and fit in well with Canberra’s streets and climate.

Supporting the missing middle

The approved Missing Middle Housing Reforms will enable more low-rise housing on most residential blocks in Canberra.

Low-rise housing gives Canberrans greater housing choice and includes:

• terraces
• townhouses
• multi-occupancy housing

Relevant changes to the Territory Plan are currently before the Legislative Assembly.

Investment in land release 

The ACT Government has also released the Housing Supply and Land Release program (2026–27 to 2030–31).

This sets out a clear, forward-looking pipeline to increase housing supply.

The program outlines land releases to support close to 26,000 new homes to be built across Canberra. There is also land for commercial, community and mixed-use development.

The housing measures in the ACT Budget support the ACT Government’s commitment to enabling 30,000 new homes by the end of 2030 and meeting the ACT’s targets under the National Housing Accord.

More homes for those who need it most

The ACT Budget will invest in more social, public, community and affordable homes for Canberrans.

A range of measures will help provide homes for some of the most vulnerable members of the community.

Key initiatives include:

• a new Public Housing Pipeline program, which will deliver an extra 450 new public homes
• new crisis and transitional housing for vulnerable Canberrans facing homelessness
• more funding for the maintenance of existing public housing properties
• funding for Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations to help deliver social and affordable housing.

The ACT Government is committed to increasing the Territory’s public housing portfolio to 13,200 homes by the end of 2030.

This is in addition to its commitment to deliver 5,000 more public, community and affordable rental dwellings by the end of 2030.

For more information on these measures, read the Our Canberra article.

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