I don’t think banning is necessary.
Instead we could start by getting rid of John Howard’s capital gains tax discounts on properties. That alone massively distorts where investment dollars go in this country. Of all the fucked things about real estate that has to be the one that is most unfair. Why the hell should you pay less tax on speculating existing property than you do when you work on something that actually produces value?
If that didn’t correct things enough there are more things that could be done: banning ownership by non citizens, replacing stamp duty with annual land tax, incentives to discourage land banking, realistic population targets, and dare I say it; limiting negative gearing to new builds only.
Nath@aussie.zone 4 weeks ago
This is always where it gets complicated. One house is pretty limiting. Lots of people have holiday homes - should that become illegal? People buy homes to support family (particularly elderly or disabled family) members in an environment that allows them some space and independence.
Should a married couple be allowed to have two homes? Should I be allowed to buy homes in my kids’ names to get around such a limitation?
I don’t have the answers to any of this. Housing is a super complicated and politically charged topic. There are a million millionaires out there with the bulk of their net worth tied up in the value of their homes. The scary truth is they don’t really want to solve this problem, because if houses stop costing most of a million (or more) dollars to buy, they stop being millionaires.
Fleur_@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
I would rather have it be a case of everyone gets a house before anyone gets a second, regardless of an individuals economic ability.
Taleya@aussie.zone 4 weeks ago
Taxing tenda to even that out. Increasing the % for every property over ppr.
Of the multifacets there are two bigguns: the cash cow of investment properties and tax breaks and developer landbanking and artificial restriction of supply on new builds.
Tax the shit out of both of these.