How much is the FIRB vacancy fee in 2026-27, and how is the amount set?

How the amount is set

The amount is set by the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Fees Imposition Regulations 2020 and explained in Treasury's Guidance Note 10. The rules are:

• Applied as a notifiable action. The fee is double the fee that was payable for giving that notice (regulation 43).
• Bought under a developer's new or near-new dwelling certificate. The fee is double the fee the buyer would have paid had they applied individually (regulation 44; Guidance Note 10).
• Vacancy years before 9 April 2024. The fee was equal to the application fee, not double. The doubling applies to vacancy years starting on or after that date, whether the dwelling was bought before or after it.

The fee is per dwelling and is assessed on each vacancy year separately. It also attaches to vacancy years, not financial years: a vacancy year starts on the owner's occupation day, not on 1 July.

Example amounts

Doubling the 2026-27 application fees for new dwellings and vacant land (Treasury's Schedule of Fees, version 8) gives these amounts for an owner who applied in 2026-27. The doubled figures are arithmetic from the published rule, and the ATO's own townhouse example of a $13,200 fee giving a $26,400 vacancy fee follows the same rule.

An owner who applied in an earlier year starts from the fee of that year:

Which year's fee applies: an owner's timeline

The ATO's example is an owner who bought a newly developed $850,000 townhouse and paid an application fee of $13,200, settling on 1 August 2022. The first two vacancy years, starting 1 August 2022 and 1 August 2023, fall before the doubling and are $13,200 each. The vacancy year starting 1 August 2024 is $26,400.

For this owner the figure in the vacancy year starting in 2026 is $26,400, not the $31,200 someone applying in 2026-27 would face, because the regulation looks back to the fee payable for the owner's own notice. Application fees themselves are indexed every 1 July, but that affects new applications.

Other cases

• Application fee waived. The vacancy fee is not nil. The regulation uses double the entry-level fee in the fee table as it stood when the notice was given (regulation 43(b)).
• Joint tenants. One return and one fee.
• Tenants in common. Each owner lodges, and each owes a fee equal to their own application fee, doubled.
• A co-owner who is not a foreign person. No liability.
• More than one dwelling. The fee is worked out for each dwelling.

When it is payable

A vacancy fee is payable only if the home was residentially occupied on fewer than 183 days in the vacancy year, or the owner is taken to be liable because the return was late. After lodgment, a notice of liability sets out the reason, amount, payment details and due date. The Act requires that date to be at least 21 days after the notice; the ATO's page says the fee can be paid when lodging or within 30 days of lodging. The notice is the document to follow.

Worked example. An owner buys a new apartment for $950,000 in October 2026 and pays the $15,600 application fee. If the home is occupied or available to rent on fewer than 183 days in each of the first two vacancy years, the fee in each is 2 x $15,600 = $31,200, or $62,400 across both years. If the home is occupied for 250 days in the first year but the return is lodged late, the owner may still be taken to be liable for $31,200 for that year. Treasury gives the same example: an owner who occupied a Perth property for 250 days but lodged late.

Unpaid vacancy fees can be recovered as a debt or secured by a charge over Australian land. The Treasurer can waive or remit part or all of a vacancy fee, and the ATO says it does so only in limited circumstances. See lodging the return, what counts as occupied and the vacancy fee page. Application fees are on the fees page.

Frequently asked questions

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