COST OF SELLING · ACT
What does it cost to sell a house in ACT?
Selling a $1,050,000 home in the ACT costs about $31,525 all up, and roughly 77% of that is agent commission. Here is every line, and what happens to the total when you remove the commission.
Estimate my ACT selling costsNo sign-up. ACT average commission: 2.3%.
About $31,525 to sell a $1,050,000 house in ACT
The ACT is the one jurisdiction in Australia where selling a house means buying the inspection reports yourself. Building, compliance and pest reports plus an Energy Efficiency Rating all have to be attached to the contract before the property can be advertised, at a seller cost of $700 to $1,500.
ACT Cost of Selling Estimator
Commission in the ACT is unregulated and negotiable, typically 2.0%–2.75%. Enter the rate you have actually been quoted, or start from the ACT average.
Charged on top of commission, and payable whether or not the house sells.
Your other selling costs
You pay these whichever way you sell, so they sit in both totals and cancel out of the difference. Each is pre-filled with a typical ACT figure. Replace any of them with a quote you have actually been given.
Acts for you on the contract and settlement. Typically $1,300 – $2,200 in ACT.
The certificates behind your vendor disclosure. Typically $700 – $1,500.
Your lender’s fee to release its mortgage, plus the registry fee. Typically $200 – $350.
Left at $0 by default. An ACT auctioneer costs $500 – $900 on the day.
With a traditional agent
With Unreserved
ACT COST BREAKDOWN
Every cost of selling a house in the ACT
Add Australia’s highest conveyancing fees and Canberra’s Crown leasehold title, and the ACT cost list looks different from every other state. Here it is in full at 2026 rates.
Agent commission (2.3% ACT average)
$24,150The big one, and the only optional line on this list. At the ACT average of 2.3% on a $1,050,000 sale, this is about $24,150. Commission is unregulated in the ACT, so the rate is set by the agency and is negotiable.
Marketing and advertising (VPA)
$2,500 – $6,000Photography, floorplan, portal listings, signboard and brochures. Payable whether or not the house sells, and usually invoiced before the campaign starts.
Your solicitor
$1,300 – $2,200Handles the contract, Pre-sale Contract & EER, searches and settlement on your behalf.
Pre-sale Contract & EER and searches
$700 – $1,500The ACT requires a complete contract, including building and compliance inspection reports, to be prepared before listing. The Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) must also appear in all advertising.
Mortgage discharge and registry
$200 – $350Your lender’s fee to release its mortgage over the title, plus the land registry fee. If you are breaking a fixed rate, ask for the break cost in writing separately.
Auctioneer (only if you auction)
$500 – $900The auctioneer’s fee on the day. Buyers in the ACT get a 5-business-day cooling-off period on private-treaty sales (with a 0.25% penalty to withdraw). There is no cooling-off period at auction.
ACT SPECIFIC
The ACT makes sellers buy the inspection reports
This is the genuine outlier in Australian selling costs. ACT sellers must attach a building and compliance inspection report, a pest inspection report and an Energy Efficiency Rating to the contract before the property is advertised. Everywhere else the buyer commissions and pays for those. In Canberra it is a seller cost of roughly $700 to $1,500, spent before a single buyer has seen the house.
Mandatory seller-paid inspection reports
Building, compliance and pest reports plus an Energy Efficiency Rating must be attached to an ACT contract before marketing begins. Budget $700 to $1,500. It is the largest state-specific cost gap in the country and it is entirely non-negotiable.
Highest legal fees in Australia
ACT conveyancing runs $1,300 to $2,200, above every state, partly because Canberra property sits on Crown leasehold rather than freehold title and the lease and any unapproved-structure issues have to be checked.
Crown leasehold, not freehold
Every residential property in the ACT is held on a 99-year Crown lease. It behaves like ownership in practice, but it adds lease-compliance checks to the conveyancing and is why unapproved structures surface as a contract problem more often in Canberra than elsewhere.
Do ACT sellers pay stamp duty? No.
Stamp duty on a property transfer is a buyer cost in the ACT, not a seller cost. The only tax that can land on a ACT seller is capital gains tax, and that applies solely to investment properties, never to your main residence. Licensing and agent conduct in ACT is governed by the Agents Act 2003 (ACT).
ACT WORKED EXAMPLE
A $1,050,000 ACT sale, two ways
WITH A TRADITIONAL AGENT
$31,525
Commission of $24,150 at 2.3%, plus marketing, solicitor fees, Pre-sale Contract & EER searches and mortgage discharge. Commission alone is about 77% of it.
WITH UNRESERVED
$4,025
A flat $900 replaces the commission and the marketing spend. You still pay your solicitor, the Pre-sale Contract & EER searches and mortgage discharge, because those are not agent fees.
DIFFERENCE
$27,500
Same house, same portals, same buyers. This is the part of your equity that stays with you rather than funding a percentage.
Based on the ACT median house of $1,050,000 at the state average commission of 2.3%, with mid-range marketing, solicitor and search costs. Your actual figures depend on your sale price and the rate you would otherwise have negotiated.
ANCHOR THE NUMBER
Every figure here starts with your sale price
A cost estimate is only as good as the price you put into it. Get a free AI valuation backed by comparable sales within 2km of your ACT home. Sixty seconds, no sign-up, and no agent will call you.
FAQ · COST OF SELLING IN ACT
Cost of selling a house in the ACT: common questions
On Canberra’s ~$1,050,000 median house, expect about $24,150 in commission at the ACT average of 2.3%, $2,500 to $6,000 in vendor-paid marketing, $1,300 to $2,200 for a solicitor, $700 to $1,500 for the mandatory building, pest and EER reports and $200 to $350 for mortgage discharge. Total: roughly $28,850 to $34,200.
ACT law requires a building and compliance report, a pest report and an Energy Efficiency Rating to be attached to the contract before the property is advertised. In every other Australian state the buyer commissions and pays for those reports. In the ACT it is a seller cost of roughly $700 to $1,500.
ACT residential property is held on 99-year Crown leases rather than freehold title, so the conveyancing includes lease-compliance and unapproved-structure checks that other states do not require. ACT solicitors typically charge $1,300 to $2,200 to act for a seller.
No. Conveyance duty in the ACT is paid by the buyer. Sellers pay commission, marketing, legal fees, the mandatory inspection reports and mortgage discharge. CGT applies only to investment properties.
ACT agents average about 2.3% of the sale price, typically negotiated between 2.0% and 2.75%, plus $2,500 to $6,000 in vendor-paid marketing. On Canberra’s ~$1.05M median that is roughly $24,150 in commission. Unreserved charges a flat $900.
77% of your selling costs are optional.
Same portals. Same buyers. None of the 2.3% commission. List your the ACT home with Unreserved for a flat $900.