Melbourne apartment buyers were signing contracts moments from midnight on June 30.

It marked a last-minute rush for completed CBD apartments eligible for cut-rate stamp duty on offer in the City of Melbourne across the past financial year.

RELATED: Sky high ‘empty shell’ in Melbourne costs $23m

Homeowners hit with double rate whammy

Four-level Caroline Springs home to smash record

Melbourne apartments were being sold right up until midnight on June 30.

---

Buyers spending up to $1m were able to pay 50 per cent stamp duty for homes completed in the municipality in the past year, or get a full stamp duty waiver for those completed more than a year ago – so long as they had not been sold prior.

Across June, developer OSK reported selling 39 completed apartments worth a combined $37m in the $2.8bn Melbourne Square development’s first stage.

Sales and marketing director Scott Jessop estimated there had been 100-120 sales that fit into the scheme at the development, and added the last contracts were finalised minutes before the scheme’s July 1 end.

“There was a last-minute rush,” Mr Jessop said. “Normally winter is pretty quiet for project sales.

Melbourne Square reported 39 completed apartments sold in June alone.

---

“But the last two months went absolutely ballistic.”

Those looking for a bigger apartment or to downsize drove sales of mostly two-bedroom units.

Mr Jessop said the buyers had also appreciated that the homes were completed and could be inspected before purchase, a rarity for new CBD apartments typically sold off the plan.

MORE: Luxe lake escape has ‘homemade’ bowling alley

Car enthusiasts wowed by 8-car garage home

Central Equity marketing manager Jeremy Vile said the firm had two projects qualify for a 50 per cent stamp duty concession, Focus (inset) and Parkhill. Both attracted gradual and consistent increases in inquiry, Mr Vile said.

There has been calls for the stamp duty extensions to be extended.

---

City of Melbourne Acting Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said developers more broadly had “reported greater interest and sales across the CBD due to the stamp duty savings”.

The council called for the exemptions to be extended, and Mr Reece said they would continue to look for ways to attract new residents to come and live in “the most liveable city in Australia” as part of the push to boost the CBD’s economy.

The living and kitchen areas in the Melbourne Square stage one apartments.

---

Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox.

MORE: Melbourne Square: Sky high concrete shell has $23m price hopes

Elvis Presley’s abandoned childhood home going under the hammer

Winemaker Ben Haines toasts sale of Fitzroy North house