Adelaide Commercial Property Finance: The State That Charges No Duty, the Land Use Code That Decides It, and the Land Tax That Replaced It
South Australia is the one state that finished the job. No liability to duty arises on a conveyance of qualifying land executed on or after 1 July 2018, so an Adelaide shop, shed or consulting suite carries no transfer duty (RevenueSA, Real Property (Land)). Qualifying land is land used other than for residential purposes or for primary production, and the Commissioner generally reads that off the Valuer-General’s land use code, not off the name on the building. The date that settles it is the contract date (RevenueSA, Information Circular 103). What did not go away is land tax, struck on the total site value of everything held under one ownership above a $936,000 threshold (RevenueSA, 2026-27 rates and thresholds).
Close to a contract on an Adelaide commercial building? A former banker handles the lending side, free.
With no transfer duty on qualifying land, the questions left are the lending ones. Bring the contract price and the land use code, and we work out what a lender would advance against it.
Book a commercial review with a former banker- No duty on qualifying land from 1 July 2018; only residential and primary production land is still dutiable (RevenueSA, Real Property (Land)).
- The contract date decides, not the Transfer date, and with no contract the Transfer date governs (RevenueSA, Information Circular 103).
- Hotel 1810, Motel 1820 and Hotel/Motel Community 1831 qualify despite sitting among the residential codes (RevenueSA).
- Retirement villages, aged care and long term accommodation do not, so full duty applies (RevenueSA, Foreign Ownership Surcharge).
- 2026-27 thresholds are $936,000 general and $25,000 for a trust, on the total site value of all land in one ownership (RevenueSA).
- Site values rose 12.44 per cent for 2026-27, after 13.8 per cent (RevenueSA).
- The flat $204.00 registration fee excludes qualifying land, so a $1,000,000 transfer registers at $10,328.00 (Land Services SA).
- C Grade offices gave back 15,390 square metres in six months while A and B Grade took space (Property Council of Australia Office Market Report, July 2026).
Is stamp duty payable on commercial property in South Australia?
No. On a conveyance of an interest in qualifying land executed on or after 1 July 2018 there is no liability to duty, subject to the transfer not arising from a contract entered into before that date (RevenueSA, Real Property (Land)). Only residential and primary production land remains liable, at conveyance rates.
The popular shorthand gets the shape wrong. This is not an exemption a buyer claims. The abolition sits in section 105A of the Stamp Duties Act 1923 (RevenueSA, Information Circular 103). Duty does not attach, so nobody waives it and there is no price at which it reappears. It arrived in stages, and the staircase still matters on an old contract.
| Contract entered into | Stamp duty reduction |
|---|---|
| On or before 6 December 2015 | No reduction |
| 7 December 2015 to 30 June 2017 | One third |
| 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018 | Two thirds |
| From 1 July 2018 | Full reduction |
Information Circular 103 is current, updated 10 May 2024, and RevenueSA says plainly that its circulars do not have the force of law. Every sister capital still has an entry cost to model: our Perth commercial property finance guide exists because Western Australia charges duty on the GST inclusive price. In Adelaide, GST is a cash flow question and no longer a duty question.
What counts as qualifying land, and what quietly does not
Qualifying land means land used other than for residential purposes or for primary production, and the Commissioner will generally rely on land use codes to decide which side of the line a parcel sits on (RevenueSA, Real Property (Land)). The word generally is load bearing: the code is where the answer starts, not where it ends.
| Land use code heading | Qualifying land? |
|---|---|
| Commercial, LUC 2000 to 2999 | Yes |
| Industrial, LUC 3100 to 3999 | Yes |
| Institutions 5100 to 5990, Public Utilities 6100 to 6990, Recreation 7100 to 7900, Mining and Quarrying 8100 to 8409 | Yes |
| Hotel 1810, Motel 1820, Hotel/Motel Community 1831 | Yes, despite the residential codes |
| Vacant Land, LUC 4110 to 4600 | Yes, only where the zoning envisages non-residential use |
| Residential, LUC 1100 to 1999 | No, with some exceptions |
| Primary Production, LUC 9100 to 9994 | No |
| Vacant Land urban 4100 and 4101, rural residential 4150 and 4151 | No, unless the zoning carries them |
Vacant land is the trap most buyers walk into, because the heading looks generous and the footnote is not. A parcel in the 4110 to 4600 range qualifies only inside a zone established under the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 that envisages non-residential use. Buy an urban site coded 4100 or 4101 with nothing in the zoning to carry it, and duty is payable at conveyance rates on a purchase that felt commercial from the first inspection.
The hotel exception, and where it stops
Some land coded residential by the Valuer-General is still treated by the Commissioner as commercial in nature, consistent with the Local Government zoning. RevenueSA names the categories: hostels, hotels, motels, serviced apartments and short term unit accommodation.
The boundary is short stay against long stay. The exception does not extend to retirement villages, aged care facilities or other residential premises best described as long term accommodation. That land is not qualifying land, so full duty applies, and a foreign buyer pays the surcharge as well (RevenueSA, Foreign Ownership Surcharge, applicable transactions).
A serviced apartment block letting by the night is qualifying land. A retirement village letting by the year is not.
When the code is wrong, and when the parcel is mixed
Where land is genuinely commercial but carries a code that does not qualify, the purchaser cannot self assess. The conveyance goes to the Commissioner with submissions on three points: why the code heading may be incorrect, the actual use at the date of the Transfer, and why the land should be regarded as qualifying land (RevenueSA, Information Circular 103).
A conveyance covering several titles where only some qualify cannot be stamped online either. It goes to the Commissioner with the consideration separately identified, and section 67 works duty on a series of transactions out on the total value, so a residential part cannot be split off to shrink the bill (RevenueSA, Stamp Duty Document Guide).
Partnerships carry their own trap. Where a partner joins or leaves and the land stays in the same registered names, a Section 71E Statement is still required on the equitable interest that moved (RevenueSA, partnership interests). On qualifying land the duty is nil, so what survives is paperwork, not a bill.
Two dates run this, and they are not the same date
The duty reduction runs off the contract date. The foreign ownership surcharge runs off the date the dutiable instrument is executed. Mixing them up is the commonest dating error on a South Australian file (RevenueSA, Information Circular 103; RevenueSA, Foreign Ownership Surcharge).
For the reduction, what counts is the contract date, not the Transfer date, and an assignment does not disturb it. Where no contract was entered into at all, which happens on transfers between related entities, the reduction runs off the date of the Transfer instead.
The surcharge works the other way. A foreign person or trust acquiring residential land pays 7 per cent of the value of that interest on transactions entered into on or after 1 January 2018, and RevenueSA’s worked example turns on the Transfer being executed after that date even where the contract was signed before it. There is no discretion to waive it.
The surcharge is residential only. It does not attach to qualifying land, and where an acquisition covers both, it is charged on the residential part alone (RevenueSA, Foreign Ownership Surcharge). An offshore or expatriate buyer taking an Adelaide warehouse, shop or office floor pays no surcharge, because there is no residential land to charge it on. Foreign investment approval is a separate question.
Check what you are buying: the qualifying land checker
Pick the asset and the checker returns the published RevenueSA position: whether it is qualifying land, the band it is read against, and the trap for that building. It classifies rather than prices, and it is no substitute for confirming the code on the title before you sign.
South Australian qualifying land checker
With scripting off, all eleven cases stay visible.
Shop or retail tenancy
Qualifying land, no duty
- Band
- Commercial, LUC 2000 to 2999.
- Trap
- A manager’s flat or short stay rooms on the same title can pull the parcel across the line, because the code follows the whole of it.
Warehouse, factory unit or workshop
Qualifying land, no duty
- Band
- Industrial, LUC 3100 to 3999. Self determined online.
- Trap
- The cost sits past settlement: land tax runs on total site value in the ownership, so the second shed is where the bill lands.
Medical or consulting suite
Qualifying land, if the code agrees
- Band
- Commercial, LUC 2000 to 2999, if the Valuer-General coded it so.
- Trap
- A suite converted out of a house can still carry a residential code, and then it goes to the Commissioner.
Office floor or office building
Qualifying land, no duty
- Band
- Commercial, LUC 2000 to 2999, whole building or strata floor.
- Trap
- Grade, not duty, is the risk. C Grade gave back 15,390 square metres in six months (Property Council of Australia Office Market Report, July 2026).
Hotel or motel
Qualifying land, no duty
- Band
- Hotel 1810, Motel 1820 and Hotel/Motel Community 1831 qualify despite the residential codes.
- Trap
- Only those three are named. Any other residential code falls back to the discretion, a submission.
Serviced apartments or short stay units
Qualifying land, by discretion rather than code
- Basis
- Land coded residential can still be commercial in nature, consistent with the zoning; serviced apartments and short term unit accommodation are named.
- Trap
- It turns on short stay. Move towards long stay letting and the discretion stops applying.
Retirement village or aged care facility
Not qualifying land, duty applies
- Basis
- The exception does not reach retirement villages, aged care or other long term accommodation. Duty at conveyance rates.
- Trap
- A foreign buyer pays the 7 per cent surcharge on top. This is where the Adelaide no duty headline is simply untrue.
Childcare centre
Qualifying land, on the Commercial band
- Band
- Commercial, LUC 2000 to 2999, if the centre carries a commercial code.
- Trap
- Nothing is published about childcare specifically, so the band decides; a centre in a converted house may still be coded residential.
Vacant site in a commercial or industrial zone
Qualifying land, if the zoning carries it
- Band
- Vacant Land, LUC 4110 to 4600, only inside a zone that envisages non-residential use.
- Trap
- The zoning is a condition, not a description. Development ready industrial land in Greater Adelaide fell from 146 hectares to 124 since May 2025 (Property Council, reported by InDaily, 27 April 2026).
Vacant urban site with no commercial zoning
Not qualifying land, duty applies
- Band
- Urban 4100 and 4101, rural residential 4150 and 4151, unless the zoning carries them.
- Trap
- Intention counts for nothing. The assessment reads the code and the zone on the day.
A shop with a flat above it
It depends, and it will not be self assessed
- Basis
- One title carries one code, so predominant use decides. Across several titles it goes to the Commissioner with the consideration separately identified.
- Trap
- No worked example is published for a single mixed use title, so do not assume the price splits down the middle.
Classification only. Codes are set by the Valuer-General and can be checked on the title before contract.
Not sure which side of the line your building sits on? Find out before the contract, not after it.
Send the address and the contract. A former banker reads the code, the zone and the contract date against the lending position, and tells you how the file reads at a credit desk.
Book a commercial review with a former bankerThe cost that did not go away: land tax on everything you own together
Land tax is calculated on the total taxable site value of all land held under one ownership at midnight on 30 June, so two properties that pay nothing alone can pay a bill together. The 2026-27 general threshold is $936,000, the trust threshold $25,000 (RevenueSA).
Take a shop with a site value of $520,000 and a warehouse at $610,000. Separately each is under the threshold and pays nil. Under one ownership they aggregate to $1,130,000, and the assessment is $970, apportioned at $446.37 to the shop and $523.63 to the warehouse. Nothing about either building changed. Only the ownership did.
| Total taxable site value | Land tax |
|---|---|
| Does not exceed $936,000 | Nil |
| Exceeds $936,000 but not $1,504,000 | $0.50 for every $100 or part of $100 above $936,000 |
| Exceeds $1,504,000 but not $2,188,000 | $2,840 plus $1.00 for every $100 or part above $1,504,000 |
| Exceeds $2,188,000 but not $3,504,000 | $9,680 plus $2.00 for every $100 or part above $2,188,000 |
| Exceeds $3,504,000 | $36,000 plus $2.40 for every $100 or part above $3,504,000 |
Illustrative site values, not typical Adelaide values; site values are set per parcel by the Valuer-General.
A single site valued at $1,000,000 comes to $320 for the year on the general table. The same site in a trust assessed at trust rates pays $5,320, because the trust table carries a $4,680 base there and adds $1.00 for every $100 or part of $100 above $936,000 (RevenueSA, 2026-27 rates and thresholds). That is 16.6 times the general figure on the same dirt, and for the two property example $6,620 against $970. That is not a recommendation about structures, which is for your accountant. It is what the published tables do, and the structure is settled before settlement.
- Site value, not capital value. A tired C Grade building and a refurbished one on the same site value carry the same land tax, which is why the cheapest stock is not the cheapest to hold.
- Joint and several liability. Each owner is liable for the full amount on the assessment, and the Commissioner can recover all of it from any one of them.
- Where aggregation stops. A spouse’s separately owned land is not combined with yours, and a company’s land is not in a director’s assessment. A corporate group is assessed as one owner, except land held as trustee (RevenueSA, how land tax is assessed).
Trusts run their own clock. Land held on trust is assessed separately from the trustee’s own land, and RevenueSA must be notified within one month of a trust acquiring land or changing its unit holdings, and interest and penalty tax may apply if that is late. A fixed or unit trust that notifies all its beneficiaries or unitholders is assessed at general rates; a discretionary trust holding land acquired after 16 October 2019 cannot, because designated beneficiary nominations were closed (RevenueSA, land held on trust).
Two things get asked in the same breath. There is no land tax exemption or relief for commercial or industrial land in South Australia at all: every category RevenueSA lists is residential, primary production or institutional. And the higher threshold is not a tax cut, because it rose from $833,000 to $936,000, about 12.4 per cent, while average site values rose 12.44 per cent (RevenueSA, 2026-27 rates and thresholds). Where the aggregate clears the threshold but the tax comes to less than $20, no assessment issues.
What still costs money at an Adelaide settlement
The duty went to zero. The registration fee did not follow it down. Where no ad valorem duty is payable the Lands Titles Office normally registers a transfer for a flat $204.00, and the Real Property (Fees) Notice 2026 carves qualifying land back out of that concession by name, so a commercial transfer still registers on the full ad valorem scale (Land Services SA).
The Registrar-General’s fee calculator repeats the carve back in its own field label. So on a $1,000,000 purchase the transfer registration fee is $10,328.00, against the $204.00 a duty exempt residential transfer would pay, struck on the consideration or the capital value, whichever is greater. The fee that grows with the deal is attached to the purchase, not the debt: the lender’s mortgage is $204.00 whatever the loan.
| Line | 2026-27 amount |
|---|---|
| Transfer registration, qualifying land, on a $1,000,000 price | $10,328.00 |
| Transfer registration where no ad valorem duty applies and the land is not qualifying land | $204.00 |
| Mortgage registration, one fee for up to 20 titles | $204.00 |
| Discharge of mortgage, including a partial discharge | $204.00 |
| New certificate of title | $112.00 |
| Property Interest Report, and a Form 1 Template | $378.00 each |
| Certificate of Land Tax Payable | $42.75 |
| Certificate of Emergency Services Levy Payable | $20.10 |
| EPA Statement, per current certificate of title | $23.00 |
The published transfer fee table stops at $1,070,000, so above that use the Property Transfer Fee Calculator or the LTO Fee Calculator.
The land tax certificate is not your future bill
Land tax and the emergency services levy are apportioned by settlement adjustment. The figure on the land tax certificate is a single holding amount, calculated at general rates as if that parcel were the only taxable land in the ownership, so a purchaser is not disadvantaged by a vendor who holds ten properties or holds through a trust. It is deliberately not the vendor’s real bill, and emphatically not the buyer’s future bill. Paying it in full by the due date, on a certificate that has not since been updated, indemnifies the purchaser against later reassessment; the vendor gets none, and nor does anyone for the levy. Certificates last 90 days and must be bought in the same financial year as the transfer (RevenueSA).
Cooling off, the Form 1 and the search that sets the timetable
The statutory cooling off right does not apply to a contract for the sale of land other than residential land where the purchaser is a body corporate (Land and Business (Sale and Conveyancing) Act 1994, section 5(7)(a)). Most commercial buyers buy in a company or a corporate trustee, so there is no statutory cooling off at all, and the only way out is a condition the contract itself carries, which on most files is the finance clause. Where it does run, it ends at the close of the second clear business day, or at settlement.
The vendor’s Form 1 applies to a commercial land sale where the interest sold is an estate in fee simple or a Crown leasehold, though not where the land is sold under a contract for the sale of a business, and it must be served at least 10 clear days before settlement, disclosing any transaction by which the vendor acquired the land in the previous 12 months (Land and Business (Sale and Conveyancing) Act 1994, section 7). The EPA statement inside that pack answers 33 questions, costs $23.00 per certificate of title, and the EPA has 8 clear business days to produce it, so on an industrial site that search, not the loan, is often the critical path. The EPA site contamination index can be searched by suburb or council before contract (EPA South Australia).
GST, and how settlement actually runs
GST here is a cash flow question rather than a duty question. A going concern sale is GST free only where all three conditions hold: there is payment for the supply, the buyer holds GST registration or is required to hold it, and both parties put the going concern character of the sale in writing (Australian Taxation Office). The written agreement is the one that gets missed. A tenanted building can be a going concern; property by itself cannot.
Transfers and mortgages are lodged electronically by mandate of the Registrar-General, transfers since 3 August 2020 and mortgages since 12 February 2018, through one of two approved operators, PEXA or Sympli (Land Services SA). Certificates, registration fees and loan proceeds clear in the same workspace. The exemptions are the ones a portfolio deal hits: more than 20 titles that cannot be separated, and cross jurisdictional transactions.
Grade, not price, is what an Adelaide credit desk reads first
Adelaide CBD office vacancy rose from 15.5 per cent to 16.3 per cent over the six months to July 2026, and almost all of the damage sits in one grade. Net demand was positive for A Grade at 4,208 square metres and B Grade at 3,409, and negative for C Grade at 15,390 (Property Council of Australia Office Market Report, July 2026; reported by InDaily, 6 August 2026).
Two readings of that figure sit in the same article and both belong here. The Property Council attributed the rise largely to negative tenant demand. Adam Hartley of Cushman and Wakefield read it as new buildings completing rather than occupier demand weakening, and noted the pipeline thins once that supply is absorbed. Andrew Bahr of CBRE put Adelaide enquiry at record highs, up 40 per cent in the June quarter against a year earlier (CBRE commentary reported by Commo, 6 August 2026). The number moved for two reasons at once.
Treat vacancy figures carefully, because reputable surveys disagree by nearly two percentage points. JLL puts Adelaide CBD vacancy at 14.5 per cent for the June quarter, and in industrial Cushman and Wakefield has 2.7 per cent against JLL at 3.8 per cent. Different surveys count different buildings, so averaging them produces a number nobody published. Either way industrial is tight, and on Cushman and Wakefield’s count more than 70 per cent of what is available is secondary stock.
That is the lending picture. The scarce asset is the good shed. The plentiful one is the tired office floor, in a CBD where a council commissioned report mapped 1,986 vacant and underused properties and named financing constraints among the barriers. Cheap stock in Adelaide is cheap because the demand behind it left, and a credit desk prices that before the yield.
Where the addresses are
Office splits into the CBD Core and the CBD Frame, with Knight Frank putting about 91 per cent of 2025 net absorption in the Core, and the Adelaide Fringe surveyed separately and more tightly again. Industrial has five submarkets: Edinburgh, Direk and Salisbury South in the Outer North, Wingfield and Dudley Park in the Inner North, Port Adelaide and Torrensville in the West, Edwardstown and Tonsley in the Inner South, and the Outer South beyond. Mile End, Regency Park, Lonsdale, Norwood and Unley are addresses any Adelaide business knows, and we attach no figure to them because none is published. Home lending sits on our Adelaide mortgage broker page.
Occupier, leased investment or fund purchase: how far a lender goes
Who stands in the building sets the ceiling, and this market is producing the borrower lenders like most. Indicatively, the ceiling is 80 per cent of valuation where the borrower’s own business will stand in the warehouse or workshop. It falls to 65 to 75 for an office or shop, to 60 to 70 once a tenant rather than the owner pays the rent, and sits at 65 to 75 again for a fund purchase.
| What you are buying | Indicative ceiling |
|---|---|
| Owner occupied warehouse or workshop | 80 per cent |
| Office or shop | 65 to 75 per cent |
| Leased investment | 60 to 70 per cent |
| Purchase inside a super fund | 65 to 75 per cent |
Set that ladder against the market above. With industrial vacancy under 4 per cent and owner occupiers taking 46.2 per cent of the space leased in the quarter, the file at the top is the easiest to fund and the hardest to find a building for. At the other end, a C Grade floor bought on yield is a leased investment with a re-letting problem, and the lease and the covenant do more work than the address. Where trading accounts are not ready, our low doc and no doc commercial guide sets out what lenders accept instead, and the structures behind all of it sit on our national commercial property loans guide.
Refinancing and equity release: the debt moves, the land does not
A refinance moves the debt, not the land, so the qualifying land question is not reopened. Registering the new mortgage is $204.00 and discharging the old one is $204.00, whatever the balance (Land Services SA), and there is no duty consequence, because no conveyance occurs.
Equity release is the same mechanism pointed at a different purpose. With the Valuer-General’s published index value rising from 1.070 in 2021-22 to 2.08 in 2026-27 (RevenueSA, 2026-27 rates and thresholds), the site values a long held Adelaide industrial holding is assessed on have moved a long way, and equity can sit idle while the land tax bill behind it climbs. Releasing part of it to buy a second property is a serviceability question, and what changes on that second purchase is the aggregated land tax, not the duty. Our commercial refinance guide covers the process and the costs.
Business premises inside a self managed super fund
The 2026 change to super fund borrowing closed residential property, not commercial. Since 10 August 2026 a fund cannot enter a new limited recourse borrowing arrangement over a house or unit, because the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026 narrowed new borrowing to business real property, which section 67A(2)(c) of the SIS Act and the ATO’s investment restrictions page define as land and buildings used wholly and exclusively in a business. An Adelaide warehouse, shop or suite is exactly that, so fund premises sit inside the rules the change left standing.
Funding them is a specialist job. No Big Four bank currently offers these loans, and the specialist lenders still in the market cap the debt at an indicative 65 to 75 per cent of valuation, with serviceability read on the rent the fund receives alongside member contributions. South Australia makes the rest simple: no duty where the premises qualify, and land tax assessed on the trust as an ownership of its own. The bare trust has to exist before the contract is signed. Whether the fund should hold the building is a licensed adviser’s call; the loan side sits in our SMSF commercial property loans guide.
Classification first, cash second: how an Adelaide file is ordered
Everstone Finance is run from South Yarra by former bankers, and an Adelaide commercial file runs the way the state’s own systems run: remotely and electronically. The identity check runs over video, the documents are electronic, and settlement lands in a workspace your Adelaide conveyancer controls. What changes here is the order of the questions. On the eastern seaboard the first call is usually about duty and the cash to complete. In South Australia it is about classification and the calendar: what the code says, whether the zoning carries a vacant site, what the contract date is, whether the buying entity is a body corporate and so has no cooling off, and how the EPA statement and the Form 1 sit against the finance clause you are about to sign. Then the ordinary work: the valuation, the lease, the covenant, the structure, and the ceiling the asset can carry.
One conversation, before the finance clause has a date on it. That is usually all it takes.
Bring the address, the contract and the entity you plan to buy in. A former banker tells you what the code means for the duty, what the aggregate does to the land tax, and how far a lender will go.
Talk it through with a former bankerFrequently asked questions
Do you pay stamp duty on commercial property in South Australia?
No. No liability to duty arises on a conveyance of an interest in qualifying land executed on or after 1 July 2018, provided the transfer does not arise from a contract entered into before that date. Only residential and primary production land is still liable, at conveyance rates. The abolition sits in section 105A of the Stamp Duties Act 1923, so it is not an exemption that a buyer claims, and there is no price at which the duty reappears.
What is qualifying land in South Australia?
Qualifying land means land being used other than for residential purposes or for primary production. RevenueSA says the Commissioner will generally rely on the land use codes set by the Valuer-General. Commercial 2000 to 2999, Industrial 3100 to 3999, Institutions, Public Utilities, Recreation and Mining all qualify, and so do Hotel 1810, Motel 1820 and Hotel or Motel Community 1831, despite those three sitting among the residential codes.
Does the foreign buyer surcharge apply to commercial property in South Australia?
No. The foreign ownership surcharge of 7 per cent applies to residential land only, on transactions entered into on or after 1 January 2018, and where an acquisition covers both residential and non residential land it is charged on the residential part alone. An offshore buyer taking an Adelaide warehouse, shop or office floor pays no surcharge. A retirement village or an aged care facility is residential land, so the surcharge does attach there.
How much land tax is payable on commercial property in South Australia?
Land tax is calculated on the total taxable site value of all land held under one ownership at midnight on 30 June. For the year that began on 1 July 2026 the general threshold is $936,000 and the trust threshold is $25,000. A shop on a site value of $520,000 and a warehouse on $610,000 each pay nil alone, yet aggregate to $1,130,000 under one ownership and produce an assessment of $970. No exemption reaches commercial land.
What does it cost to register an Adelaide commercial transfer when there is no duty?
More than most buyers expect. Where no ad valorem duty is payable the Lands Titles Office normally registers a transfer for a flat $204.00, but the Real Property (Fees) Notice 2026 carves qualifying land back out of that concession by name. So a commercial transfer still registers on the full ad valorem scale, which comes to $10,328.00 on a purchase of $1,000,000. Registering the mortgage is $204.00, whatever the loan amount.
How much will a lender fund on an Adelaide commercial property?
Indicatively the ceiling is 80 per cent of the lender valuation where the business doing the buying will stand in a warehouse or workshop. It falls to 65 to 75 per cent on an office or a shop, to 60 to 70 per cent once a tenant pays the rent, and sits at 65 to 75 per cent again inside a super fund. The ceiling applies to the valuation rather than to the contract price, and on a leased asset the lease term and the strength of the tenant carry more weight than the address does.
Sources
- RevenueSA, Real Property (Land) (no duty on qualifying land from 1 July 2018; the qualifying land test; the land use code bands; hotels, motels and the commercial in nature exception): revenuesa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- RevenueSA, Information Circular 103 (the phase-out table by contract date; the no-contract fallback; the three submissions where a code is wrong; mixed parcels and section 67; sections 105A and 71DC), issued 10 May 2024: revenuesa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- RevenueSA, Stamp Duty Document Guide, conveyance of qualifying land (the self determination gate and the records retained for audit): revenuesa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- RevenueSA, Foreign Ownership Surcharge (7 per cent, residential land only, from 1 January 2018; the instrument date; no discretion to waive): revenuesa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- RevenueSA, Foreign Ownership Surcharge, applicable transactions (retirement villages, aged care and long term accommodation are not qualifying land; mixed acquisitions): revenuesa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- RevenueSA, partnership interests (Section 71E Statements and the documents required on a change of partnership interest in land): revenuesa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- RevenueSA, land tax rates and thresholds 2026-27 ($936,000 general and $25,000 trust thresholds; both rate tables; the $20 rule; average site value changes and index values): revenuesa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- RevenueSA, how land tax is assessed (site value at midnight on 30 June; aggregation and apportionment; joint and several liability; corporate groups): revenuesa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- RevenueSA, land held on trust (trust ownerships assessed separately; the one month notification; designated beneficiary nominations closed after 16 October 2019): revenuesa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- RevenueSA, land tax exemptions, waivers and relief (every published category, none of which reaches commercial or industrial land): revenuesa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- RevenueSA, RevenueSA Online certificates for the emergency services levy and land tax (the single holding figure, the purchaser indemnity, certificate fees and the 90 day validity): revenuesa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- Land Services SA, Real Property (Fees) Notice 2026, fees and charges 2026-27 (the flat $204.00 registration fee and its qualifying land carve back; the ad valorem transfer scale): landservices.com.au, read 22 September 2026
- Land Services SA, industry ad valorem fees 2026-27 (the published transfer registration fee table, including $10,328.00 at $1,000,000): landservices.com.au, read 22 September 2026
- Land Services SA, document lodgement fees 2026-27 (mortgage registration and discharge at $204.00): landservices.com.au, read 22 September 2026
- Land Services SA, SAILIS price list 2026-27 (the Property Interest Report and Form 1 Template at $378.00): landservices.com.au, read 22 September 2026
- Land Services SA, electronic conveyancing (transfers mandated from 3 August 2020 and mortgages from 12 February 2018; PEXA and Sympli; the exemptions): landservices.com.au, read 22 September 2026
- Land Services SA, LTO Fee Calculator and Property Transfer Fee Calculator (the official fee calculators referred to on this page): landservices.com.au, read 22 September 2026
- Land and Business (Sale and Conveyancing) Act 1994 (SA), sections 5 and 7 (no cooling off for a body corporate purchasing land other than residential land; the Form 1 served at least 10 clear days before settlement): legislation.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- Environment Protection Authority South Australia, section 7 statements (33 questions, $23.00 per current certificate of title, 8 clear business days): epa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- Environment Protection Authority South Australia, site contamination and the public site contamination index (the polluter pays principle and pre-purchase searching): epa.sa.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- Australian Taxation Office, selling a going concern (the three conditions, and what can and cannot be a going concern): ato.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- Australian Taxation Office, SMSF investment restrictions and business real property, read with the limited recourse borrowing arrangement change made by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026, which confines new fund borrowing to business real property from 10 August 2026: ato.gov.au and ato.gov.au, read 22 September 2026
- Property Council of Australia, Office Market Report July 2026 chartbook (Adelaide CBD vacancy 15.5 per cent to 16.3 per cent; net demand by grade): propertycouncil.com.au, read 22 September 2026
- InDaily, warnings as businesses ditch old Adelaide CBD buildings, published 6 August 2026 (the C Grade vacancy split from 12.1 per cent to 19.1 per cent, and both explanations for the rise): indailysa.com.au, read 22 September 2026
- InDaily, call to action as almost two thousand idle city buildings mapped, published 1 September 2026 (1,986 vacant and underused properties; financing constraints among the barriers): indailysa.com.au, read 22 September 2026
- InDaily, good policy no strategy, published 27 April 2026 (development ready industrial land in Greater Adelaide down from 146 hectares to 124 since May 2025): indailysa.com.au, read 22 September 2026
- JLL, Adelaide industrial market dynamics, second quarter 2026 (owner occupiers 46.2 per cent of space leased): jll.com, read 22 September 2026
- JLL, Adelaide office market dynamics, second quarter 2026 (CBD vacancy 14.5 per cent): jll.com, read 22 September 2026
- JLL, latest industrial vacancy rates across Australia, second quarter 2026, published 17 August 2026 (Adelaide industrial vacancy 3.8 per cent across 5.7 million square metres): jll.com, read 22 September 2026
- Cushman and Wakefield, Adelaide industrial Marketbeat, second quarter 2026 (vacancy 2.7 per cent; Inner North at 4.3 per cent; more than 70 per cent of availability secondary stock): cushmanwakefield.com, read 22 September 2026
- Commo, CBRE commentary on the Property Council office vacancy statistics, published 6 August 2026 (Adelaide enquiry up 40 per cent year on year; prime vacancy limiting options): commo.com.au, read 22 September 2026
- Knight Frank, Adelaide office market report, March 2026 (about 91 per cent of 2025 net absorption in the CBD Core): knightfrank.com, read 22 September 2026