FIRB Approval in 2026: Fees, the Established Dwelling Ban, and What Foreign Buyers Can Still Buy

The Established Dwelling Ban, Now Extended to 2029

From 1 April 2025, foreign persons, a category that includes most temporary residents and foreign-owned companies, were temporarily banned from purchasing established (previously lived-in) dwellings in Australia. The measure was designed to free up existing housing stock for local buyers during a period of tight supply. It was originally set to run for two years, expiring around March 2027.

In the 2026-27 Federal Budget, the government extended the ban by a further two years and three months, pushing the expiry out to 30 June 2029. Limited exceptions apply, chiefly for investments that significantly increase or support housing supply, and the long-standing exemption for New Zealand citizens remains in place.

This directly affects the visa classes covered in our visa eligibility guide: temporary residents on 482, 494, and 491 visas remain able to borrow and buy, but almost entirely within new builds, off-the-plan purchases, and vacant land for the duration of the ban.

What You Can Still Buy

In practice, this pushes almost all temporary resident purchases toward new-build stock, which lines up with a strategy already worth considering for the tax advantages new builds retain under the 2026 negative gearing reform, a rare case where the FIRB rules and the tax rules point the same direction.

FIRB Application Fees, By Property Value

FIRB fees are tiered by the value of the property and indexed every 1 July. For the 2025-26 fee year, a new dwelling or vacant land purchase up to $1 million costs $15,100 to apply for. Fees rise in bands as the property value increases. In the rare cases where an established dwelling exception is granted, the fee is roughly three times the equivalent new dwelling fee at the same value tier.

These fees are payable to the Australian Taxation Office, which now administers FIRB fee collection, and are separate from and in addition to standard stamp duty and any state-based foreign buyer surcharge.

The Vacancy Fee

Once a foreign person owns a residential property in Australia, a separate annual obligation applies. If the property is not occupied or genuinely available for rent for more than 183 days in a 12-month period, an annual vacancy fee is payable.

This makes buy-and-hold-vacant strategies considerably more expensive than they were before 2024, when the vacancy fee was aligned one-to-one with the application fee rather than doubled.

The Application Process

Who Actually Needs FIRB Approval

Permanent residents and Australian citizens are entirely exempt from FIRB, regardless of where the funds originate. Temporary residents generally do need approval, with one significant exception: purchasing as joint tenants with an Australian citizen spouse generally waives the FIRB requirement entirely, a structuring point covered in more depth in our visa-by-visa eligibility guide.

For a deeper look at how specific visa categories, including business, investor, and parent visas, interact with both FIRB and mainstream lender policy, see our companion guide on home loan rules for business, investor, and parent visa holders.