Land for Sale in Craigieburn: Titled vs Untitled and What You’ll Really Pay

Titled land in Craigieburn costs more and lets you settle and build now. Untitled land is cheaper but settles only when the plan of subdivision registers, which can take far longer than the estimate. On a $400,000 block, Victorian land transfer duty is $19,070 at the general rate, or nothing if you’re an eligible first home buyer.

Craigieburn isn’t a greenfield suburb any more

That sounds like a small point. It changes everything about buying land here.

Donnybrook and Kalkallo are still being built. Craigieburn, for the most part, already is. It sits in Hume City Council, it has a train station, a shopping centre, established schools, and streets that were laid out decades ago.

Which means the land that comes up for sale in Craigieburn falls into two very different categories, and the advice for one is almost the opposite of the advice for the other.

Remaining estate releases on the suburb’s edges. These behave like Donnybrook land: often untitled, sold off a plan, with design covenants and a timeline you don’t control.

Infill blocks: a subdivided backyard, a demolished house site, an odd-shaped remainder lot. These are almost always titled, usually smaller, and priced against what you can actually build on them rather than against a glossy masterplan.

People search “land for sale Craigieburn”, get shown both, and compare them on price per square metre. That comparison is close to meaningless.

What Craigieburn houses sell for

The finished value is the number that disciplines everything else. Domain’s suburb profile, sales in the 12 months to October 2026:

Type	Median
3-bedroom house	$654,000
4-bedroom house	$765,000
5-bedroom house	$902,000
2-bedroom unit	$430,000
3-bedroom unit	$550,000

Craigieburn’s four-bedroom median is $765,000: $90,000 above Donnybrook’s $675,000 and $94,500 above Kalkallo’s $670,500. You’re paying for the infrastructure that already exists.

Note the unit medians. Craigieburn has a real unit market; Donnybrook and Kalkallo effectively don’t. If you’re buying an infill block with townhouses in mind rather than a single house, those are the comparables that matter, and $550,000 for a three-bedroom unit is the number to build your feasibility against.

Duty on Craigieburn land, with the actual arithmetic

Victoria’s general land transfer duty rate for contracts entered into on or after 1 July 2021, on a dutiable value between $130,000 and $960,000, is $2,870 plus 6% of the value above $130,000.

So:

Dutiable value	Duty at general rate
$300,000 block	$13,070
$400,000 block	$19,070
$500,000 block	$25,070
$765,000 established 4-bed house	$40,970

The last row is the comparison that matters. Buy the median Craigieburn four-bedroom house and you hand over $40,970 in duty. Buy a $400,000 block and build the same house, and you hand over $19,070, because the State Revenue Office assesses duty on the land only, not on your building contract.

That’s a $21,900 difference for arriving at the same address by a different route.

First home buyers in Craigieburn: read this twice

The first home buyer duty exemption covers dutiable values up to $600,000, with a reduced amount between $600,001 and $750,000.

Craigieburn’s three-bedroom median is $654,000.

That’s above the exemption threshold. You’d be in concession territory, paying a reduced amount rather than nothing. Donnybrook ($595,000) and Kalkallo ($591,662) are both still under it.

But buy a $400,000 Craigieburn block, and the dutiable value is $400,000, comfortably under $600,000. Duty-free, for an eligible first home buyer, in a suburb where the established three-bedroom median has already crossed the line.

That’s the strongest argument for building rather than buying in Craigieburn specifically, and it’s a direct consequence of the land-only assessment rule. If you’re eligible, the exemption that Craigieburn’s established market has grown out of is still fully available to you on land.

Craigieburn’s unit market, and why infill buyers should care

Look again at those unit medians: $430,000 for a two-bedroom and $550,000 for a three-bedroom.

Craigieburn is one of only four suburbs in this corridor that reports a unit median at all. Donnybrook, Kalkallo, Wollert, Beveridge and Doreen report none, because there isn’t enough unit stock transacting to produce one.

For anyone looking at an infill block, that’s the single most useful fact available.

If you’re buying a subdivided backyard or a demolition site with townhouses in mind rather than one house, your comparable set is the unit market, not the house market. And Craigieburn actually has one. The $550,000 three-bedroom unit median is a real, evidenced number you can build a feasibility against, which you simply cannot do in Donnybrook or Wollert.

Now the arithmetic that decides whether it stacks up. Craigieburn’s three-bedroom house median is $654,000. Its three-bedroom unit median is $550,000. The gap between buying a house and buying a unit is $104,000.

A narrow gap is what makes townhouse development work, because the dwellings you create sell for nearly as much as the house you demolished. A wide gap kills it. At $104,000, Craigieburn sits in the middle: two three-bedroom units at $550,000 each would gross $1,100,000 against a $654,000 house, a ratio of about 1.68.

That’s a screening number, not a feasibility. It takes no account of build costs, demolition, the planning permit, service connections, holding costs, selling costs, GST or capital gains tax, and it assumes two three-bedroom units are physically permitted on the block. Plenty of blocks that look big enough aren’t.

But if the ratio on your street is materially below that, the title search can wait.

Titled versus untitled: the real comparison

	Titled	Untitled
Exists legally	Yes	Not yet
Settle	Now	When the plan registers
Price	Higher	Lower
Build start	Immediately after settlement	Unknown
Finance risk	Low	Your approval can expire
Build quote risk	Low	Your quote can expire
Typical in Craigieburn	Infill blocks	Edge estate releases

What goes wrong with untitled

The failure mode is always the same and it’s always a chain.

Titles are estimated for, say, nine months out. You get finance approved, three to six months’ validity on most approvals. You sign a build contract with a price valid for a defined period. Then civil works hit a wet winter, or a service authority takes longer than planned, or the plan bounces back from Land Use Victoria for amendment.

Eighteen months later the title registers. Your finance approval lapsed a year ago. Your build price lapsed too. You re-apply for both in whatever market exists then.

None of that is anyone acting in bad faith. It’s just what happens when you buy something that doesn’t exist yet.

The clause to actually read

Every off-the-plan land contract has a sunset date, the outer limit by which titles must register. Ask for it in writing, then ask the harder question: what happens when it passes?

Victoria has rules restricting a vendor’s ability to simply rescind an off-the-plan contract at the sunset date and resell the land at a higher price. Those protections exist and your conveyancer should explain exactly how they apply to your contract. Don’t accept a verbal summary from a sales office. Get the clause reviewed by someone whose job is to act for you.

The holding costs that run from settlement

Two Victorian taxes apply to land you own but don’t live on.

Land tax, assessed on site value as at 31 December, on land that isn’t your principal place of residence. A $400,000 site value falls in the $300,000–$600,000 band: $1,350 plus 0.3% of the amount over $300,000, so $1,650 a year. A principal place of residence exemption can cover land you’re building on, with conditions and time limits, verify your own position with the SRO or your conveyancer instead of assuming it applies.

Vacant residential land tax. Land in metropolitan Melbourne that has remained undeveloped for five or more continuous years and is capable of residential development is assessed at 1% of capital improved value. On a $400,000 block that’s about $4,000 a year, on top of land tax. Owners must notify the SRO by 15 February each year, that obligation sits with you.

Five years is the part people underestimate. Buy untitled with an 18-month delay, spend six months arranging finance and design, run a 14-month build, and you’ve used more than three of your five years without anything going badly wrong.

What to check on an infill block specifically

Infill land in Craigieburn comes with a different set of problems to estate land, and almost nobody writes about them.

• Easements. Subdivided backyards frequently carry drainage or sewer easements. An easement across the middle of a 400m² lot can make it unbuildable for the house you had in mind. Check the title plan, not the sales brochure.
• Existing services. Is the block connected, or does it need a new water tap, a new power pit, a sewer extension? On infill this is often the buyer’s cost and it’s rarely disclosed up front.
• Overlays in the Hume Planning Scheme. Bushfire, flooding, heritage, significant landscape. Any of these can add conditions, cost and delay to a planning permit.
• What the neighbours’ houses are worth. An infill lot’s value is capped by the street. Building a $900,000 house on a street of $650,000 houses is a way to lose money slowly.
• Site access and fall. A narrow battleaxe lot with a steep fall costs materially more to build on. Builders price that in; the land seller usually hasn’t.

Growth areas infrastructure contribution

If the land sits in a contribution area, GAIC may apply. For 2026–27 the rates are $122,260 per hectare on Type A land and $145,220 per hectare on Types B-1, B-2 and C, with interest on deferred GAIC at 5.6063%.

On a single subdivided residential lot this is normally dealt with by the developer well before your contract. On a larger holding, or on land being subdivided for the first time, it can be a very large number. Ask for written confirmation that GAIC has been paid or doesn’t apply. “It’s all been handled” is not written confirmation.

So which should you buy

If you want certainty, buy titled. You’ll pay more per square metre and you’ll know what you own, when you can build, and what it costs. For most buyers in Craigieburn, especially anyone with a lease expiring or a sale settling, that’s the right trade.

If you’re genuinely able to wait, and the saving on untitled is large enough to matter, and your conveyancer is satisfied with the sunset clause, untitled can work. Make the decision with the clause in front of you.

And if you’re an eligible first home buyer, run the duty numbers before you decide anything. Craigieburn’s established three-bedroom median has moved past the $600,000 duty-free threshold. A block of land hasn’t. That gap is worth real money and it isn’t obvious from any listing.

Send us the title plan and the contract before you sign. The easement and overlay checks take minutes and they’re the ones that change answers.

Frequently asked questions

1. How much is land in Craigieburn right now? It depends heavily on whether you’re looking at an edge estate release or an infill block, and the two aren’t comparable on price per square metre. Ask for current stage releases rather than a suburb average. For context on finished value, Domain records Craigieburn’s median four-bedroom house at $765,000 over the 12 months to October 2026.

2. Is Craigieburn land cheaper than Donnybrook? Generally no. Craigieburn’s established infrastructure is reflected in its prices, its four-bedroom house median of $765,000 sits $90,000 above Donnybrook’s $675,000. You’re paying for the train station, the shopping centre and the schools that already exist.

3. What does titled land mean? Titled land has a certificate of title and sits on a registered plan of subdivision, so it legally exists and you can settle on it and begin building. Untitled land has not yet been created in law, the title comes into existence when the plan of subdivision is registered with Land Use Victoria.

4. Do I pay stamp duty on vacant land in Victoria? Yes, unless an exemption applies. Duty is assessed on the land’s dutiable value using the general land transfer duty rates: $2,870 plus 6% of the value above $130,000, for values between $130,000 and $960,000. Crucially, the State Revenue Office assesses vacant land on the land alone and does not include the value of your building contract.

5. Can first home buyers avoid duty on land in Craigieburn? Often yes. The first home buyer exemption covers dutiable values up to $600,000 and explicitly extends to vacant land intended for building your first home. Because duty on land ignores your build contract, a $400,000 Craigieburn block attracts no duty for an eligible buyer, even though Craigieburn’s established three-bedroom median of $654,000 is above the threshold.

6. How long does land settlement take? Titled land settles on the contract date, typically 30 to 90 days. Untitled land settles only once the plan of subdivision registers, which depends on the developer completing civil works and the plan clearing Land Use Victoria. Published estimates slip regularly, so plan around the sunset date rather than the estimate.

7. What is a sunset clause in a land contract? It sets the outer date by which titles must register. If that date passes, specific contractual and statutory consequences follow. Victoria restricts a vendor’s ability to rescind an off-the-plan contract at the sunset date and resell at a higher price, have your conveyancer explain precisely how those protections apply to your contract before you sign.

8. Can I sell an untitled block before it titles? It’s difficult and may be restricted by your contract. Because the lot doesn’t legally exist yet, you’d generally be assigning your contractual rights rather than selling land, and many contracts limit or prohibit that. Assume you cannot exit easily, and don’t buy untitled with money you may need back.

9. What services should already be connected to the block? Water, sewer, electricity, gas and telecommunications, but confirm whether they run to your lot boundary or only to a street in an earlier stage. On infill blocks in particular, new connections are frequently the buyer’s cost and often aren’t disclosed. Get it in writing.

10. What is vacant residential land tax and when does it start? It’s a Victorian tax on residential land left vacant. Metropolitan Melbourne land that has stayed undeveloped for five or more continuous years and is capable of residential development is assessed at 1% of capital improved value, roughly $4,000 a year on a $400,000 block. Count the five years from settlement, and note that you must notify the SRO by 15 February each year.