What Does It Actually Cost to Buy an Investment Property in 2026?

The full upfront bill, item by item

Before settlement, an investor typically faces six distinct costs. The deposit is different in kind from the rest — it is not an expense at all, but your equity going into the asset. The others are genuine costs of acquiring or financing the property:

• —Deposit — equity, not an expense; its size sets your loan-to-value ratio (LVR)
• —Stamp duty — a state or territory tax on the transfer, calculated differently in each of the eight jurisdictions
• —Lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) — payable when the loan exceeds 80% of the price
• —Conveyancing and legal work on the contract and transfer
• —Building and pest inspections — typically $400–800
• —Buyer's agent fees — commonly around $10,000–15,000 for full service, or a percentage of the purchase price

Stamp duty: a capital cost, not a deduction

Stamp duty is levied by each state and territory on the transfer of the property, and the calculation differs across all eight jurisdictions. It is a capital acquisition cost: you cannot deduct it against your rental income or salary in the year you pay it. Instead, it is added to the property's cost base, which reduces the capital gain when you eventually sell. Land tax, by contrast, is an ongoing holding cost and is generally deductible on an investment property — a distinction worth keeping straight, because the two are often lumped together as 'property taxes'.

Because the brackets and rules vary so much by jurisdiction, we maintain separate state-by-state guides — see the stamp duty and land tax guides linked below. Plintha computes stamp duty exactly for all eight states and territories, with the calculations verified against each revenue office, so the figure in a Plintha report is a computed number rather than a rule-of-thumb estimate.

LMI: what borrowing above 80% LVR really costs

If your loan exceeds 80 per cent of the purchase price, the lender will generally require lenders mortgage insurance. Despite the name, LMI protects the lender, not you — it insures the bank against a shortfall if the loan goes bad. The premium can usually be capitalised into the loan rather than paid in cash at settlement, which preserves your deposit but means you pay interest on it.

For tax purposes, LMI is treated as a borrowing cost: it is deductible, but spread over five years (or the term of the loan if that is shorter), not claimed in full upfront. Plintha's default modelling assumes an 80% LVR; if you override the LVR above 80% in the Advanced settings, the model adds LMI to the analysis automatically.

Conveyancing, inspections and buyer's agent fees

Conveyancing covers the legal work of reviewing the contract and completing the transfer. Building and pest inspections typically cost $400–800 — a minor line in the overall bill, and the standard way to discover structural or termite problems before settlement rather than after.

A full-service buyer's agent commonly charges roughly $10,000–15,000, or a percentage of the purchase price. The industry body is REBAA, the Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia. The critical question with any buyer's agent is who pays them: an agent remunerated by the seller or developer is not working for you. Plintha's analysis includes a buyer's-agent conflict check that reads who pays whom on the deal and flags the arrangement.

Deductible now, deductible over time, or cost base?

A useful way to sort the upfront bill is by tax character. Costs of acquiring the asset — stamp duty is the clearest example — are capital: never deductible against income, added to the CGT cost base instead. Costs of borrowing, such as LMI, are deductible but written off over five years, or the loan term if that is shorter. Ongoing costs of holding the property, such as land tax, are generally deductible year by year. Where a specific cost sits can depend on your circumstances, so the classification is one to confirm with your accountant before lodging.

In a Plintha report every figure carries its provenance — computed, [ESTIMATE] with the assumption shown, or [ASSUMED] from an overridable default — so you can see exactly which upfront costs were calculated precisely and which rest on an assumption. The free tier includes one analysis per month, with no card required.

Common questions