The LNP had as one of their policies that if they were elected they would reintroduce the stamp duty concession for owner occupiers where they are not first home owners. You may recall that Labour revoked the concession and brought in the building boost. The concession was that you only paid 1% for the first $350 000 then normal rates above that amount. This meant on a house of above $500 000 you saved approximately $7000.
On 10 April 2012 the government issued a press release stating that they will reintroduce the concession. The start date will be 1 July 2012. It will only apply to contracts entered into after 30 June 2012.
If you enter into a contract before then and attempt to gain the concession by terminating the contract and signing a new contract you will be committing an offence. The office of State Revenue were amazingly good at catching people trying do this last time they introduced a stamp duty change so we strongly advise against attempting to do this.
For further information please contact Roland Taylor of Statewide Conveyancing on (07) 4963 0807 or at rtaylor@swc.net.au.