When Do You Pay Land Tax in Victoria?

Land tax and vacant residential land tax rates and thresholds checked October 2026 against the State Revenue Office Victoria.

When do you pay land tax in Victoria?

You pay land tax once a year, by the due date on your assessment notice, which is 12 weeks after the notice is issued. The State Revenue Office (SRO) generally issues assessments between January and June, based on what you owned at midnight on the previous 31 December.

Instalments can be fortnightly, monthly or four equal payments, and a plan set up before the due date avoids interest. You must tell the SRO about errors within 60 days of the assessment being issued. Land tax is separate from stamp duty, which you pay once when you buy; our guide to stamp duty in Australia covers that.

Who pays: the 31 December rule

Land tax is paid by whoever owns the land at midnight on 31 December of the previous year, for the whole of the following year. If you sell during the year, you remain responsible for that full year's land tax.

That makes settlement dates around Christmas worth thinking about if the property is not going to be your home:

• Settlement on 20 December. The buyer owns the land at midnight on 31 December, so the buyer is assessed for the coming year, unless it is exempt as their home.
• Settlement on 8 January. The seller still owned it on 31 December, so the seller pays the whole year's land tax, despite owning it for only eight days of that year.

The SRO can also treat both parties as owners during a sale. A buyer who has taken possession under a contract is treated as an owner, and a seller remains an owner until the buyer has taken possession and paid at least 15% of the price. That mostly matters for early possession and terms contracts. Our guide to settling over the Christmas period covers the practical side of a late-December settlement.

How much is land tax in Victoria?

Land tax is charged on the total site value of all the taxable land you own in Victoria, not property by property. It applies once your total taxable holdings reach $50,000, or $25,000 for trusts. Your home, primary production land and some other land are exempt.

For example, an investor whose only taxable land is a rental with a site value of $700,000 would pay $2,850. Trusts pay under a separate surcharge scale, and absentee owners pay an absentee owner surcharge on top. Land held in joint ownership is assessed separately from land you own alone. The site value is set each year by the Valuer-General, not by what you paid.

How is land tax adjusted at settlement in Victoria?

For most sales it is not adjusted at all. For contracts signed from 1 January 2024, a seller cannot pass land tax, including vacant residential land tax, on to the buyer if the sale price is below a threshold. The threshold is $10,700,000 from 1 January 2026 and is indexed each year. A contract clause that makes the buyer pay the seller's land tax is void, and including one is an offence under the Sale of Land Act 1962. Contracts signed before 1 January 2024, and sales at or above the threshold, can still provide for an adjustment.

What the buyer's conveyancer does instead is protect the buyer from the seller's unpaid tax:

• Property clearance certificate. The buyer's conveyancer applies to the SRO for a certificate, which shows any land tax and vacant residential land tax that is due and unpaid, and may show tax assessed but not yet due.
• A first charge on the land. Unpaid land tax ranks ahead of a mortgage and stays with the land after it is transferred, so a buyer could otherwise inherit it.
• A cap for the buyer. If the buyer obtained the certificate, the amount the SRO can recover from the buyer cannot exceed the amount shown on it. A buyer cannot rely on a certificate obtained by the seller.

Any amount on the certificate is cleared from the seller's side at settlement. Our guide to unpaid rates or land tax found at settlement explains what happens when the figures do not line up.

What is vacant residential land tax?

Vacant residential land tax (VRLT) is an annual tax on residential land in Victoria that was left vacant in the previous year. Since 2025 it has applied across the whole state; before that it covered only 16 inner and middle Melbourne council areas.

A property is generally liable if, in the previous calendar year:

• it was not lived in for at least six months in total, by the owner, a permitted occupant, or tenants under genuine leases or short-term letting (the months need not be continuous, and simply listing it for rent does not count)
• on 31 December, the home had been under construction or renovation, or uninhabitable, for two years or more
• from 1 January 2026, it is land in metropolitan Melbourne capable of residential development that has stayed undeveloped for five years or more

Long-undeveloped metropolitan land, and new homes unused and unsold for more than three years, are charged at 1%. There is no tax-free threshold. Common exemptions include your home and other land exempt from land tax, a holiday home used by you or relatives for at least four weeks a year, a property used for at least 140 days to attend work in Victoria, and land that changed ownership during the previous year. VRLT does not apply to retirement villages, residential care facilities or commercial residential premises.

Buying a property that was vacant: VRLT and settlement timing

If you buy a property that sat empty, the previous owner's vacancy does not become your VRLT bill. The SRO exempts a property from VRLT for the year after its ownership changes, and its own example is a vacant home listed in February 2025, sold in September and settled in November 2025, which is exempt for 2026. Ownership must actually change: being listed for sale or awaiting settlement is not enough.

From then on, your own use is what counts:

• Investors: if the property is lived in for less than six months of a calendar year, VRLT can apply the following year. Getting a tenant in promptly after settlement matters. See buying a tenanted property or with vacant possession.
• Renovators: from 1 January 2026, a home that cannot be lived in because of significant renovations or repairs that start and finish within the same calendar year is exempt for the following year. Longer works are measured from the building permit, and VRLT can apply once they pass two years.
• Notifying: if you own vacant residential land, you must notify the SRO by 15 February, even if you believe an exemption applies.

Any VRLT the seller still owes shows on the property clearance certificate, is a first charge on the land, and is covered by the same no-pass-on rule as land tax, so it is the seller's to clear at settlement.

Buying a home to live in: making sure it is exempt

Your principal place of residence is exempt from land tax and VRLT, but the SRO has to know it is your home. Your conveyancer usually nominates it on the Notice of Acquisition of an Interest in Land when you buy. If that was missed, or you are moving into a property you already own, apply for the exemption through the SRO's My Land Tax portal.

• Occupancy: to be exempt for a land tax year, you generally need to live in the home for at least six months from 1 July of the year before.
• Buying in the second half of the year: if you buy on or after 1 July and have not moved in by 31 December, the SRO can defer the land tax for six months. Once you have lived there continuously for that period, the exemption applies.
• Changes: tell the SRO within 60 days if you move out, rent the home out, leave it empty or sell it, or penalties and interest may apply.

Holiday homes never qualify for the home exemption, even if you use them often. For the Victorian purchase process as a whole, see conveyancing in Victoria or our residential purchase conveyancing service.

Frequently asked questions

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. Rules, fees and timeframes change and differ between states, so confirm your own situation with a licensed conveyancer, settlement agent or solicitor.