Stamp duty and other tax among biggest barriers to homeownership, REIA chief says
The Real Estate Institute of Australia has lauded the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue for opening an inquiry into housing affordability and supply in Australia.
The committee will address property taxation in the form of stamp or transfer duties and land tax, which REIA President Adrian Kelly said were among the largest barriers to housing affordability and consistently performing markets.
“Families across all the states and territories except the ACT are paying more stamp duty today than 20 years ago, and [it] is time to get serious about stamp duty reform,” Kelly said. “Australia has had the fourth-fastest house-price growth out of the world’s advanced economies over the past 20 years. Politicians cannot on the one hand gripe about housing affordability, and on the other say we need this income from home buyers and owners to fund public-sector operations.”
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REIA has called on the Council of Federal Financial Relations to look at the issue “seriously and nationally” rather than “shift this responsibility off to states and territories,” Kelly said.
Kelly said the massive market entry of first-home buyers in both 2009 and 2020 proved that stimulus programs and the waiving of taxes worked to boost homeownership.
“The lack of national coordination has led to limited supply of both new and existing listings across the board,” Kelly said. “Now more than ever, we need fact-based and bipartisan support on policy issues for home buyers and owners.”
