The deposit is the number everyone plans for. It is rarely the number that causes the problem.
Everton Park attracts upgraders for a straightforward reason.
It sits about 11 kilometres north of the CBD, and families who have outgrown a first home nearby can move up without moving away from everything they use. What catches those buyers out is not the purchase price. It is the money and the rules that sit between selling one home and settling on another.
Transfer duty when you have owned before
The first home concession requires that you have never held an interest in another residence anywhere in Australia or overseas, and it only applies to a home valued under $800,000. Any prior ownership, including a part share or a property overseas, rules it out. For most upgraders it is gone.
The home concession is not, and plenty of upgraders do not realise it still applies to them. The Queensland Revenue Office states that you can claim the home concession even when you have owned a home before. The concessional rate applies to the first $350,000 of the consideration or value of the residence, at $1 for each $100 or part of $100, and the general transfer duty rates then apply to the balance. Above $350,000 the published concession rates run at $3,500 plus $3.50 for every $100 over $350,000 up to $540,000, then $10,150 plus $4.50 for every $100 over $540,000 up to $1 million, then $30,850 plus $5.75 for every $100 above $1 million.
It is worth running your actual figure through the Queensland Revenue Office estimator rather than working off a rule of thumb, because the difference between the concession applying and not applying is real money.