The Cost of Conveyancing in Victoria: What You’ll Actually Pay in 2026

The cost of conveyancing in Victoria starts at around $1,400 plus GST, with another $300 to $600 in disbursements on top, if all certificates are going to be ordered and no corners cut. So, a straightforward purchase usually lands somewhere between $1,740 and $2,200 all up, and it goes higher as the property value, extra work out of scope is required and the complexity go up. That is the honest answer, and it is one you will struggle to get out of most conveyancers in writing.

Ring around five firms in Melbourne and you will get five versions of “it depends on your circumstances”. It does depend on a few things, and we will go through exactly what.

The short version: cost of conveyancing in Victoria at a glance

What you’re paying for	Typical cost in Victoria, 2026
Conveyancer’s professional fee (buying or selling)	From $1,400 plus GST
Disbursements (searches, certificates, PEXA)	$300 to $600
Contract and Section 32 review before you sign	$360 plus GST
Stamp duty on a $750,000 home	$40,070, paid to the State Revenue Office

Two of those lines are money that comes to us, professional fee and Contract/S32 review fee.

The other two we collect and pass straight on to third parties.

Keeping the two apart in your head is the most useful thing you can do when you are comparing quotes, because the cheap end of the market relies on you not doing it.

What makes up the cost of conveyancing in Victoria

There are only two parts to your bill, and they behave completely differently.

1. The professional fee

This is what you pay a licensed conveyancer to do the work. It covers reading the contract and the Section 32, which is the vendor’s disclosure document, running the searches, preparing the transfer and the duties forms, dealing with your bank or broker and the agent, calculating the adjustments (the sum that splits the rates, the water and any owners corporation fees between you and the vendor, so each of you pays only for the days you owned the place), and settling through PEXA, the online system where the money and the title change hands.

Put plainly, the fee buys somebody holding your file for about three months. First the contract and the Section 32, and whether the special conditions do what the agent said they do. Then the deposit, the finance date, and a certificate from every authority with an interest in the land. Then your lender’s figures, the vendor’s payout figure and the transfer. On the day, a settlement that has to balance to the cent, because if it doesn’t, it doesn’t happen. None of that is visible when it goes well, which is why it is easy to sell cheaply.

Ours starts at $1,400 plus GST, whether you are buying or selling. Selling is not cheaper. It is different work, not less of it. It is also one fee for the matter, not an hourly rate that ticks over every time you ring with a question.

2. Disbursements

These are the costs we pay on your behalf and pass on at cost. Not profit, and not optional. On a standard Victorian purchase they total $300 to $600:

If you are purchasing or selling a standard house with no owners corporation and one person to identify, then you are at the bottom of the range, around $300 to $400. Add an owners corporation certificate and a second person to identify and you are past $600 quickly. That is why it is quoted as a range.

NB. The owners corporation certificate alone can be $300 if it has to be turned around in two business days instead of ten. That is not a mark-up. The fee is capped by Consumer Affairs Victoria, and the cap rises with urgency. It is a decent argument for not leaving your conveyancer three days to do a job that normally takes two weeks.

Why the cost of conveyancing in Victoria is a range, not one number

Anyone quoting a single flat fee for every job in Victoria is either averaging it out and overcharging the simple ones, or they will come back to you later with extras. The things that genuinely move a fee up the range are these:

• The value of the property. More at stake, more scrutiny, more exposure on our side.
• Off-the-plan and unregistered plans. Longer contract, heavier disclosure, a settlement date that moves, and usually a sunset clause worth arguing about.
• Owners corporations, especially large or badly run ones, where the certificate and the minutes need reading properly rather than filing.
• Deceased estates, trusts, companies and self-managed super funds. More parties, more documents, more that can go wrong.
• Out of scope work. Where you require us to do more than is required on a normal file, that will save you time and energy. We always give you the choice if you want to do them to save money or if you want us to do it for a fee.

Why some conveyancing quotes in Victoria say $600 to $990

You can absolutely get conveyancing done in Melbourne for $600 to $990, so the price gap is real and worth explaining. What you are buying at that price is someone processing a file like just another number, or you are just a transaction to them. They will never admit this or say it out loud, this is what you will experience.

From hiring people who have worked in many different conveyancing offices and law firms over the years previous to working with us, I always ask them what they notice the difference being in working with us versus previous employers. The three things I have heard the most, particularly with cheap costed conveyancing employers, is they:

• Cut corners in certificate ordering, identity checks and prioritising settlement tasks
• Use AI to do a lot of things without checking them for accuracy, as they either don’t have time or blindly have faith in it or don’t have the practical knowledge to verify its accuracy
• Do not do the detail with their reviews, statement of adjustments and settlement documents, hence why they have so many delayed settlements

It is not just our team who have shared this. We would get four to seven clients per month that have left their cheap conveyancer early to mid file, as it is all wrong, has become a mess and/or the conveyancer won’t communicate with them via phone, etc.

Our golden rule at Skilled Conveyancing is RELATIONSHIP is much more important to us than money, and hence why our Google reviews tell you time and time again that we educate, communicate, care and make your settlement stress free.

What is that worth, on your biggest transaction of your life? We have written before on why cheap conveyancing often becomes the most expensive mistake.

The much bigger number: stamp duty in Victoria

Almost everyone budgets for the conveyancer (and real estate agent if selling) and forgets the State Revenue Office. Stamp duty will be many times our fee, and it is due at settlement.

Purchase price	Duty at the general rate
$500,000	$25,070
$600,000	$31,070
$750,000	$40,070
$1,000,000	$55,000
$1,500,000	$82,500

Those are the general rates published by the State Revenue Office. Check the concessions before you budget off that table.

First home buyer stamp duty concessions in Victoria

First home buyers pay no duty at all up to $600,000. Eligible first home buyers pay no land transfer (stamp) duty on properties with a dutiable value up to $600,000.

For homes valued between $600,001 and $750,000, a tapered sliding scale concession applies, reducing the normal duty amount owed.

The key thresholds for you to understand in Victoria are:

• Up to $600,000: full stamp duty exemption (you pay $0).
• $600,001 to $750,000: concessional sliding rate that gradually increases as the property value rises toward the upper limit.
• Over $750,000: standard stamp duty rates apply with no first home buyer reduction.

First home buyer eligibility rules

In order to be eligible for these rates, the basic eligibility rules are:

• Principal place of residence: at least one buyer must live in the home for a continuous 12-month period, starting within 12 months of settlement or possession.
• Property value cap: the total dutiable value must be $750,000 or less.
• Ownership history: neither buyer can have previously owned residential property in Australia that they lived in or claimed an exemption on, subject to specific first home buyer definitions.

What to ask before you engage a conveyancer in Victoria

Ring whoever you are considering and ask them what the price includes, whether it is plus GST or including it, and who will actually be on the phone to you. We will always provide you with 7 questions to ask any conveyancer when looking for best price or service. Make sure you get these from us when you call, or read our 7 questions to ask any conveyancer page.

Get a real number before you sign

Ring us before you sign, not after.

Most of what we can fix for you is only fixable while you still have the option of walking away.

Give us the address and the price and we will quote it on the phone with the disbursements in the number, so you can hold it against anything else you have been given.

We act for buyers and sellers right across Victoria, including Ballarat, Geelong, Wantirna South, Warragul and Wodonga.

Call us on 03 9729 3512 or email us for the best conveyancing experience you will find.