Submitted 1 year ago by TassieTosser@aussie.zone to australia@aussie.zone
My first instinct is “yes” but then I thought about it and I think it’s just going to exacerbate the short-stay problem unless combined with other measures.
Remove negative gearing and the capital gains tax concessions then let’s talk other measures.
This.
This is the easiest to administrate and provides the biggest benefit. This is the low hanging fruit.
However, after Labors bloodbath when taking it to the election in… 2017 (?) it’s a political non-starter.
Easy fix then, set the criteria for not getting taxed to a formal leasing agreement.
There would have to be a minimum term for it to qualify. Otherwise, that could be worked around with a “lease” with a term of one day.
Trye, but the simple fact of making it a lease with all the legal protection and obligations inherent under tenancy laws would absolutely blow a hole in AirBnB’s arse.
It would help a little, but is not a magic bullet resolution for decades of under funding public housing, and tax breaks that have converted housing from a right to a tax break.
They’re worse than a tax break, they’re an investment.
So to everyone who has those “investments” (like Boomers who did well, people born into rich families, most policitians and most of politicians friends), house prices spiralling out of control is desirable.
They’ll never let the bubble burst.
It’s one of a long list of possible measures that the government could take but won’t.
Our government is riddled with landlords. Why would they vote for policies that don’t benefit them.
Just tax land…
A flat land tax is a bit rough. You may some 80-year-old pensioner living in a simple house in suburbs. They’ve lived there for 60 years, only that suburb is now gentrified and a blanket 1% tax on the house is now a $10k/year tax bill they need to come up with (Just making up example of 1% of $1 Million property) just to stay in their own home.
This is a tough problem to figure out. I’m glad it isn’t my job. Whatever the solution is, I’m sure it’s more complicated that just blanket-taxing land. There’d need to be some exemptions to address this (which wouldn’t be that uncommon) and other scenarios I’m too dumb to think of. And whatever exemptions are applied, would naturally lead to people exploiting them as loopholes.
I think options to defer payment until sale of the house for people with low incomes would be worthwhile, but considering the massive benefit we give to pensioners who own their own home I don’t think it is unreasonable for some of that to be repaid from the sale of the house. If that same pensioner held a similar value of assets in any other form we would expect them to be fully self-funded and they would not see a cent of pension.
Fuck a flat land tax idea. On top of GST, Income Tax, Rates and interest (plus stamp duty), it’s just a money grab.
The people at prosper have put some thought into this. www.prosper.org.au/…/stamp-duty-to-land-tax/ there scheme allows the elderly to defer the tax until sale which prevents them from being forced to sale but still incentivises it.
Yep. Can’t dodge it, encourages productive use. The only thing is it might push more properties towards airbnb unless you tax that more to make it less profitable.
Outside of holiday towns I don’t think AirBNB is actually an issue it’s such a small percentage of properties that it’s really just marginal. Arguably they get a small subsidy for paying residential rates but most the time it’s an apartment that gets the minimum rate so effectively a hotel is paying less.
In holiday towns it’s similar but arguably they cause more dramatic spikes in rent but overall it should be similar. Tourists are also generating a lot of revenue and jobs so would you rather low rent but no jobs or higher rent but a competitive job market?
The title has been edited on the ABC, and the new title is a pretty perfect summary of what I think almost anyone would have intuitively understood:
could improve Australia’s housing crisis but isn’t the only solution
We just should stop shovelling people into cities. Lots of people can work remotely and one who can’t will follow one who can. Just tax companies for having office unless they do production. Yeh, yes it will crash prices in CBD, so not going to happen.
Cities are still good even if you don’t need to commute into work. Having higher density means people can walk or cycle to visit friends, or when going to social and sporting clubs. They mean you can get to the shops much more easily, and are more likely to have access to a wide variety of niche stores.
They’re better for the environment because they reduce dependency on cars, and reducing the need to drive everywhere is excellent for children and teens who can gain a greater degree of independence when they don’t have to be driven everywhere by a parent. And good for health because more passive exercise is amazing as a substitute for driving everywhere, as well as because of the reduction in pollutants in the local air caused by driving.
In short, suggesting people should spread out ad infinitum might be fine when you just look at it in terms of “home” and “work” travel, but in a much broader sense there are huge advantages to keeping people located together.
While I don’t disagree that cities give better access and is better for the environment, I do disagree about the independence for young people. In the city, it is not seen as safe for a young person, like under 10, to walk to their friends house in the same suburb. In the country that would be perfectly normal. I do agree, car transport becomes a necessity for events and meet ups that are further afield. However, that’s also the case in the city. Just no for every event due to better public transport, but our public transport systems are not all covering.
Honesty I do not believe that many would prefer to live in units where others walking on you head than in a house. Yes you can be forced to live in such condition because unit it is all you can afford while having reasonable commute. Remove that requirements and people will spread. Historically cities were build for mutual protection after that to concentrate work force. It is no longer relevant, they have nothing to offer in modern world. Yes it is cheaper to confine population in cities, but tent camps are even cheaper. to run Cities are not something we should use in the future.
We tried that in Canada, housing in small towns just shot up to super expensive as well, and it’s now just expensive everywhere.
In this case only answer is more houses. And lowering building code, so building for new house does not mean you have to pay mortgage for next 25 years.
It’s already everywhere. Places like Wollongong and Newcastle have the same housing issues as Sydney. Sometimes even worse. And even further out to places like in the Maitland and Cessnock council areas people can’t afford rent anymore. And every new vacancy has hundreds of people showing up.
In fact local people are suffering more as cashed up Sydneysiders are swooping in paying the “cheap” rents which are already double what they were pre covid.
I swear I’ve seen this exact post before. Might be because the answer is a pretty clear yes; if combined with killing AirBnBs. If only this changes, then the problem won’t actually be solved.
Too little too late.
It should be based on bedrooms.
A four bedroom house should have a minimum three people living there as their principle place of residence. The address on their drivers license, electoral roll, school encirclement, etc. If you have less people, you should pay… I dunno, $40k per year in tax?
The government can use that $40k to buy all the homes people are suddenly going to want to sell, and put them on the rental market.
Doesn’t this encourage knocking down walls, making bigger bedrooms, reclassifying rooms as non-bedroom, and knockdown rebuilds.
Nah, i don’t like this idea at all.
IMO it violates the age old principle of “quiet enjoyment”. Whether you own or rent, you should be able to determine what happens in your own home, provided that it doesn’t impose on anyone else’s quiet enjoyment of their premises, nor the personal liberties of your co-occupants.
Imagine whatever agency knocking on your door to confirm that the registered occupants do actually reside there. No thanks.
Bold! I like it. I worry it would fall into arguments of what is a bedroom and what is a study/wfh space, etc. Also, what if someone can’t find someone to fill their extra bedroom? A 40k tax would force people to live with people they don’t feel safe around.
lasagna@programming.dev 1 year ago
I quite liked Wales’ approach of taxing second homes significantly more.
A large part of Wales’ housing issue comes from English retirees buying up holiday homes. To the point people were accusing the government of discriminating against English people for the tax against properties that aren’t main residences.