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.
You have to actually move in, and there is a deadline
This is the condition that quietly bites people who are renovating before they move, or who plan to rent the new place out for a while first.
To keep the home concession you must move into the home with your personal belongings and live there on a daily basis within 1 year of settlement, and the Queensland Revenue Office is explicit that this time cannot be extended.
There are rules on either side of moving in. Before you move in, you cannot sell or transfer all or part of the property, and you cannot lease, rent or otherwise grant exclusive possession of all or part of it. After you move in, you cannot lease, rent or otherwise grant exclusive possession of all of the property within 1 year of moving in. Renting out part of the property while you continue to live there is treated differently, for leases starting on or after 10 September 2024.
If the plan involves a long renovation, a tenant staying on, or a staged move, get that checked against the concession rules before you sign, not after.
A change worth knowing about
For transactions entered into on or after 1 August 2026, eligibility for the home concession requires the buyer to be an Australian citizen, a permanent resident or a specified foreign retiree.
For most Everton Park upgraders that changes nothing. Where it matters is a purchase involving a partner who is not a citizen or permanent resident, or anything held through a structure. Those situations need proper advice rather than an assumption.
The costs people forget to add up
Beyond duty, the gap between two homes carries its own bill. Selling costs on the home you are leaving. Two sets of legal fees. Building and pest on the purchase. Moving twice if the dates do not line up. Bridging interest if you buy before you sell. Rates and water adjustments at settlement on both properties.
None of these are dramatic on their own. Together they are often the difference between the budget you planned and the budget you actually have, which is why they are better sorted out before you are choosing between two houses on a Tuesday night.
What else to check in Everton Park
Two things are specific to the area and worth doing early.
Both Everton Park State School and Everton Park State High School operate under School Enrolment Management Plans with equidistant catchment areas, which means the catchment position of the individual address does real work if schooling is part of the move. Check the address in EdMap rather than assuming the suburb.
The suburb has no train station of its own. The Ferny Grove line runs to its south, with stations at Enoggera, Gaythorne, Mitchelton and Oxford Park, so how you actually get to work is worth testing on a weekday morning rather than a Saturday.
Written by Jack Freestone, Buyers Collective