Progress payments in the ACT
Here, there is no statutory limit on the deposit at all — the only real cap is what insurance will return. What a progress payment is, and how the stages of a build line up, is on the main guide.
the ACT does not set stage percentages. Only Victoria and the Northern Territory do. Here the amounts are whatever your contract says, and the law constrains how they may be claimed rather than how large they may be — so the check below is a different one.
the ACT: what the law sets
- Deposit cap
- None. There is no limit on the initial deposit in the ACT
- Industry practice
- Usually up to 10% of the total contract price
- Insurance recovery on a deposit
- $10,000 maximum if the work is not completed
- Stage percentages
- Not prescribed
- Written contract
- Not mandatory for residential building work, but strongly recommended
Read from ACT Government Planning, Hiring a builder on 26 October 2026. Access Canberra is the authority on what applies to a particular contract, and a figure here is a ceiling rather than an entitlement.
The ACT is the exception, and not in a comfortable direction
Every other Australian jurisdiction caps the deposit a residential builder may take. The ACT does not. The government's own guidance states plainly that there is no limit on the initial deposit, and that industry practice is usually up to 10% of the total contract price — practice, not law.
So the number that matters is the insurance one
If there is no cap on what you can be asked for, the question becomes what you can get back. Under the insurance for the project, the maximum recoverable on a deposit where the work is not completed is currently $10,000.
That figure, not the deposit percentage, is the one to negotiate against. A 10% deposit on an $800,000 build is $80,000, of which $10,000 is protected if the builder does not start. The gap is the exposure, and in the ACT it is yours to argue down before signing rather than to discover afterwards.
A written contract is not compulsory here either
Residential building work in the ACT does not legally require a written contract. It is strongly recommended, and in a jurisdiction that caps neither the deposit nor the stages, the contract is doing all of the work that statute does elsewhere.
Questions about paying a builder in the ACT
Is there a maximum deposit in the ACT?
No. There is no statutory limit on the initial deposit. Industry practice is usually up to 10% of the contract price, but that is a convention rather than a cap.
What can I recover if the builder takes a deposit and never starts?
The insurance maximum for a deposit where the work is not completed is currently $10,000, regardless of how much larger the deposit was.
Do I need a written contract in the ACT?
Not as a matter of law for residential building work, though it is strongly recommended — particularly here, where neither the deposit nor the payment stages are set by statute.