Never has an inquiry into the skyrocketing price of homes been more urgent.Rarely has one been as insultingly ill-suited as the one under way right now. Midway through last year in the midst of COVID, the average forecast of the 22 leading economists who took part in The Conversation mid-year survey was for no increase in home prices whatsoever in the year ahead (actually for slight falls). At that time the typical (median) Sydney house price was A$1 million, where it stayed until the end of the year. Get news curated by experts, not algorithms. Then it took off. In the ten months to the start of this month the typical Sydney house price soared $300,000 to $1.3 million – a breathtaking increase (and an awfully big penalty for delaying buying) of $1,000 each day. For apartments, the increase isn’t as big, although still extraordinary. The cost of delaying buying a typical Sydney […]
Now it’s Liberals telling us we are going to have to cut the capital gains tax concession if we want to get Australians into homes
In a submission placed quietly on the federal government’s housing inquiry website late last week the NSW government argued that if the concession was cut, housing would be used ‘more for accommodation needs than investment needs’. Photo: Waterfront Properties Redcliffe NSW is doing what Labor’s Bill Shorten could not – explaining why Australia’s capital gains tax concession is knocking first home buyers out of homes. Shorten went to the 2016 and 2019 elections with a plan – Labor would halve the capital gains tax concession used by landlords who buy and sell properties. In much the same way as he was unable to sell his (now modest by international standards) plan to make half of all new car sales electric by 2030, he was pilloried by Morrision and before him Malcolm Turnbull for a policy they said would smash house prices. Shorten had similar trouble selling his (now modest by international standards) plan to make half of all new car sales […]