How much money do you actually need to buy a house?

Published by RG Settlements. Our Victoria Park team provides property settlement and conveyancing services for buyers, sellers and property owners across Perth and Western Australia.

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A recurring issue I find when I’m dealing with the settlement of a property is that people underestimate how much they need on hand to purchase a home.

Let’s break it down for you.

1. Offer: You’ll need cash to place a deposit on the property when your offer is accepted. This can be anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000, depending on the asking price. This is usually a negotiable amount. This amount will later be deducted from the total sale price.
2. Deposit: You’ll also require a deposit for the bank. This is usually a minimum of 10%. The more you have, the more you can likely borrow. If you want to avoid LMI (lender’s mortgage insurance), you’ll need over 20% of the purchase price available as a deposit.
3. Inspection: While you don’t need to have your potential property inspected prior to purchasing, it’s a very good idea to. You’ll need to hire a professional building inspector to review the property top to bottom. Skipping this could cause a massive headache down the track.
4. Settlement fees: You’re settlement agent will charge you for their services, but there’s other fees to consider as well.
5. More settlement fees: Council rates, strata rates, mortgage registration, land titles and bills such as water need to be paid before the settlement is finalised. Your agent will handle all of this, but don’t be surprised if there’s an extra few grand in fees required.
6. Transfer duty: WA transfer duty is assessed on dutiable property transactions. Generally, transaction records must be lodged with RevenueWA within two months of the transaction date. Payment has a separate deadline: one month after the assessment notice is issued unless a later statutory payment period applies. Conditional land, subdivision and issue-of-title agreements can have different payment periods. Duty must be paid to obtain the certificate needed to register the transfer; confirm the due date and settlement arrangements with your representative.
7. Moving costs: This includes establishment fees for your utilities, the removal van and anything else you may need to get started.

Purchasing a house is no small thing! Make sure that you’re prepared for the costs involved before you dive into the process.

And make sure you have a good settlement agent, like me, lined up to walk you through the process.

Duty timing information corrected 7 September 2026. Sources: RevenueWA — duties information requirements; pay duty; conditional agreements.

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