Can I reduce closing costs buying out my brothers half of our property?

[albanga]

Hey All,
I own a property with my brother 50/50 that we purchased and paid 30k closing costs on in early 2012. We are about to subdivide the property, sell of the back property and then I will buy my brother out if the existing house.

Is there anyway to reduce the closing costs when the purchase occurs (particular the stamp duty).
I am not sure of the relevance but when we first purchased the property it was my brothers third and my first so I was not given any first home buyers. From my understanding even though I did not receive any FHB that I have forfeit that for the future as well? If not could this be used to reduce the stamps?

Finally my wife is not currently on the title of the house and has never purchased a property so could she maybe somehow be used?

 

[EN710]

Did you live in the property as ppor, or purely IP? If purely IP you might still be able to get your FHOG

 

[albanga]

Did you live in the property as ppor, or purely IP? If purely IP you might still be able to get your FHOG

No I live in the property as PPOR and have for all but 2 months after settlement as tenants were in there.

 

[Terry_w]

There are no stamp duty exemptions or discounts for transfers between siblings.

As stamp duty is on the value at the date of transfer you have to work out which would be cheaper - transferring before sub-division or after..

But you also have to factor in other costs such as GST and tax, redoing the loans etc. Also estate planning issues.