Buying a property in Western Australia: the complete step-by-step guide

Talk to your lender or mortgage broker early and get pre-approval, so you know how much you can borrow. Remember to budget for more than the price: transfer duty, lender’s fees, searches, inspections, insurance and our fees all add up.

If you’re a first home buyer, you may pay much less transfer duty, or none at all. See step 6.

In WA, you usually make an offer in writing on an Offer and Acceptance form, which incorporates the Joint Form of General Conditions for the Sale of Land. Your offer sets out the price, deposit, settlement date and any special conditions. Once the seller accepts it, it’s a binding contract.

That means the time to get advice is before you sign your offer, not after.

We review the offer, the general conditions and the special conditions you want to include, such as a finance condition, a building or pest inspection, or making your purchase subject to selling your own home. For strata properties, the seller must give you a pre-contractual disclosure statement before you sign, and we review it with you.

Our advice draws on years of acting for Australia’s major banks and lenders. We’ve seen where transactions go wrong and the things that are often missed, so we know what to look for before it becomes a problem. You get the benefit of that experience. In other words, the benefit of hindsight.

This is also when to decide how you’ll hold title if you’re buying with someone else, as joint tenants or tenants in common. We’ll explain the difference and help you choose.

Once the seller accepts your offer, the contract is binding on both sides. There’s no cooling-off period in WA, so you can’t change your mind unless a condition in the contract lets you.

You pay the deposit. It’s negotiable, and in WA it can be quite low, sometimes as little as $10,000. It’s usually held in the selling agent’s trust account until settlement. If the seller later receives an unconditional offer, a common clause can give you 48 hours to make your offer unconditional or lose the property.

If your offer includes a finance condition, you must try your best to get the loan. If it isn’t granted, the contract won’t be binding on you, but you may need to give notice to end it, and some wording treats a loan offer as approval. We’ll make sure you understand exactly what your condition requires.

Inspection and subject-to-sale conditions work the same way: act within the dates in the contract, or you lose the right. We track those dates for you.

Transfer duty must be lodged within 2 months of the date liability arises, which for most purchases is the contract date. You can estimate it with the RevenueWA calculator.

For contracts from 7 May 2026, first home buyers pay no duty on homes up to $600,000 and a concessional rate up to $800,000. For vacant land, the thresholds are $450,000 and $550,000. An off-the-plan concession also applies to eligible new apartments and townhouses until 30 June 2028. Foreign buyers pay an additional 7% foreign transfer duty.

Before settlement, we check the settlement adjustments for council rates, water and strata levies, prepare your settlement statement and confirm the figures with your lender. About 7 days before settlement, we’ll email you a pre-settlement summary. It includes the statement of adjustments, what you need to do before settlement and exactly how much you need to have available to settle.

In WA, the seller must have compliant smoke alarms and at least two RCD safety switches installed before the property is transferred. Book a final inspection to check these, the condition of the property and the inclusions.

Settlement takes place electronically, usually through PEXA, Australia’s main digital property settlement platform. The balance of the price is paid by your lender and by you, depending on how much you’re borrowing. At the same time, transfer duty is paid, the transfer and your mortgage are lodged, and the seller’s loan is paid out. Once we confirm settlement, the agent releases the keys.

After settlement, we send you a final letter confirming the purchase.