NSW transfer duty statistics: what two decades of Revenue NSW data shows

The number of transfer duty transactions Revenue NSW records each year has barely moved in a decade, down just 1.7% from 2015-16 to 2025-26. Total duty collected has not stood still: it is up 64.2% over the same period, because the average duty bill per transaction has risen 67%. This page compiles that finding and the underlying figures, sourced directly from Revenue NSW's open statistics releases, fetched and read cell by cell for this page.

General statistical information about NSW transfer duty, compiled from Revenue NSW's published open data. It is not financial or legal advice, and duty on any specific property depends on its own dutiable value and circumstances, not these statewide figures. For advice about your own transaction, speak with your licensed conveyancer or solicitor. About our editorial standards.

The headline finding

Revenue NSW publishes monthly transfer duty figures going back to July 2005, covering every transfer duty document lodged for assessment, not property sales alone (see Methodology and scope below). Two financial years anchor the recent picture. In 2015-16, Revenue NSW recorded 267,091 transfer duty transactions. Ten years later, in 2025-26, it recorded 262,561, just 1.7% fewer. But total duty collected in 2025-26 was $14,239,719,534, 64.2% higher than 2015-16's $8,674,690,802, because the average duty bill per transaction rose from $32,478 to $54,234, a 67% increase. A near-flat transaction count and a much higher average duty bill are what is driving the total up, not a surge in the number of transactions.

This is a single, continuous Revenue NSW dataset ("Transfer duty - total", DSD 002) compared across a decade, not two different sources. It counts transfer duty documents lodged for assessment -- including property sales, business-asset transfers, superannuation transfers and nominal duty, and excluding Fixed Duty and most Exemptions -- so it is not a count of property settlements specifically. The rise in average duty per transaction reflects both a decade of property value growth and the periodic CPI-indexed adjustments to the duty rate brackets over that period; this page does not attempt to separate the two effects, and neither figure is a prediction of what any individual buyer will pay.

Transactions and duty collected, by financial year

The table below shows the same two figures for the most recent financial years. 2021-22 is the record year on Revenue NSW's data for both measures at once: the most transfer duty transactions lodged in any year on record (275,369) and the most duty collected ($14,292,077,166). 2025-26 is the second-highest year for duty collected, coming within 0.4% of the 2021-22 total, but only the sixth-highest for transaction count -- 4.7% below 2021-22's total and behind four other financial years too, including 2015-16 (267,091), 2020-21 (265,907), 2014-15 (264,615) and 2016-17 (263,858).

Since Revenue NSW's dataset begins (1 July 2005), it has recorded 4,940,251 transfer duty transactions totalling $157,290,534,669 in duty paid, as published in the release dated "data as at 1 August 2026". Revenue NSW republishes this dataset monthly, and figures for a given financial year can differ between republications -- this page's figures were fetched and confirmed against the source cell-by-cell on 22 August 2026; treat them as Revenue NSW's currently published state rather than a fixed historical record.

First home buyer exemptions, 2025-26

Revenue NSW separately publishes how many First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme exemptions and concessions it grants each financial year. In 2025-26 it granted 32,167 exemptions and concessions, worth a combined $652,180,830 in duty relief. This is a separate Revenue NSW dataset from the transaction totals above, with its own scope and inclusion rules, so this page reports it alongside rather than folding it into a single ratio with the transaction count. See our First home buyer NSW guide for the current exemption and concession thresholds.

Which postcodes pay the most transfer duty

Revenue NSW also publishes transfer duty totals by postcode. In 2025-26, postcode 2000 (Sydney CBD) alone accounted for $1,285,498,117, about 9.2% of the $13,986,606,672 attributed to single NSW postcodes that year (this excludes duty Revenue NSW records against "Multiple" postcodes in one transaction, which cannot be apportioned to any single postcode), and about 6.3 times the next-highest postcode.

Postcode	Approximate area	Duty paid, 2025-26
2000	Sydney CBD	$1,285,498,117
2765	Riverstone / Marsden Park	$205,618,556
2088	Mosman	$164,285,347
2060	North Sydney	$155,286,142
2171	Prestons / Edmondson Park	$154,822,634

This postcode table covers all property types recorded against that postcode (including commercial land), not residential home sales alone, and it excludes transfers with no land details recorded and business-transfer duty, so its totals differ from the transaction totals in the sections above. Treat the ranking as showing where duty revenue concentrates by location, not as a count of home settlements.

Methodology and scope

Every figure on this page comes from Revenue NSW's own published open-data statistics spreadsheets: "Transfer duty - total" (DSD 002), "First home duty exemptions by financial year" (DSG 002) and "Transfer duty - by postcode" (DSD 003), all fetched directly from revenue.nsw.gov.au for this page and read cell by cell, not summarised from a rendered dashboard or a third party's write-up. Percentages and averages shown are calculated from those published figures; each is flagged as calculated, not an official Revenue NSW percentage, wherever it appears.

DSD 002 is not a property-sales series: Revenue NSW's own header describes it as "All Transfer Duty, including property, sale of business, superannuation and nominal duty", counted by the date the document is received for assessment, and excluding Fixed Duty and most Exemptions. This page reports it as "transfer duty transactions", never as "property transactions" or "settlements". DSD 003 (the postcode table) additionally excludes business-transfer duty and any transfer with no land details recorded, and covers all land uses, not residential sales only. Revenue NSW's release notes do not describe either dataset as "final"; this page does not use that word for them. This page will be reviewed when Revenue NSW next updates these releases.

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