If you’re considering a dual occupancy, unit title, subdivision or second dwelling in Canberra, there may be a Lease Variation Charge (LVC).
The amount can vary significantly — and two properties in different suburbs, or even two properties in the same suburb, may be treated differently.
The first thing we need to check is your Crown lease.
The first step to understanding which LVC pathway may apply.
Most residential land in Canberra is held under a Crown lease.
Your Crown lease sets out what your land can be used for and may also specify how many dwellings are permitted.
If you want to change those rights — for example, from one dwelling to two dwellings — the ACT Government may impose a Lease Variation Charge.
There are three common situations.
A Secondary Residence on your block.
Two dwellings on one block.
Create a new block.
For example:
If the lease currently allows residential purposes without specifying a maximum number and it needs to be changed to specify two dwellings:
Where the Crown lease already states a maximum number of dwellings, a different calculation generally applies.
The amount can depend on the suburb or locality and the number of dwellings permitted after the change.
Greenway
Chisholm
Kambah
Duffy
Page
Amaroo
Kaleen
Nicholls
Watson
Griffith
These figures are examples only. The correct pathway depends on the wording of the property’s existing Crown lease and the development proposed.
Potentially, yes.
From 1 July 2026, eligible residential developments in RZ1 and RZ2 may qualify for a separate 50% reduction in LVC.
The concession is scheduled to run until 31 December 2030 — but that is the deadline for finishing construction. The deadline that decides whether you get the reduction is development approval before 30 June 2029, eighteen months earlier, and it is the one people miss.
It isn’t automatic. The development has to add one or more homes and be in RZ1 or RZ2, and you have to enter the LVC Deferred Payment Scheme once your assessment notice arrives.
(ACT Government guidance, read 15 October 2026.)
Base LVC: $64,500
Potential 50% reduction: − $32,250
Base LVC: $90,000
There’s particularly good news here.
A Crown lease variation whose only effect is to authorise a Secondary Residence carries no Lease Variation Charge. It is not free, though: most Canberra leases say one dwelling, and that wording still has to be corrected before a second home can be built. That is an administrative correction rather than a charge, and it has a cost of its own: $2,637, and it can take up to 100 days (as at October 2026). The time matters as much as the money — it is worth starting before the rest of the project, not after.
This doesn’t mean the entire project is free of government fees.
Planning, building approval, infrastructure and other costs may still apply.
It also doesn’t mean you can automatically create a separate title for the Secondary Residence.
However, this may not be the only charge involved.
For example, your project could involve both:
1. Changing the dwelling rights; and
2. Subdividing the block.
We therefore assess the entire proposal rather than simply adding a standard subdivision charge.
This distinction is important.
Creates separate Crown lease blocks.
Read it yourself
Our letter to the ACT Government about these charges
We say above that the subdivision method is in dispute and that we will not quote you a figure for it. This is that dispute, in writing. The letter puts five questions to the Minister, including the one that decides what subdividing actually costs: whether the $7,500 subdivision charge and the charge for adding a dwelling are added together, or whether one takes precedence.
It also covers Secondary Residences, older leases with no dwelling limit, leases that already allow a second home, and how the 50% reduction works in practice. It draws on our review of more than 350 Crown leases held for our clients.
Rather than trying to work this out yourself from legislation, Crown leases and government tables, start with your property.