Triguboffinomic panic 2.0

Sydney apartment developers like Harry Triguboff are very concerned at what is happening in Melbourne because they fear if the Melbourne apartment market cracks, it will spill over into Sydney.

…In Victoria the cost of new apartment developments is set to rise sharply. Melbourne has attracted more Chinese buyers of inner-city/CBD apartments than Sydney because of the attractions of the city to the Chinese and the fact that Melbourne apartments are significantly cheaper because of lower land and approval costs.

…Let’s look at how the price of a Melbourne apartment costing today — say, $450,000 — might rise after July 1. First there is a new Victorian stamp duty on overseas purchases, which will add $13,500, and second there is the Tony Abbott tax of $5,000 — a total rise of $18,500 or 4.1 per cent.

And? Foreign investors are not buying on price, cripes, if they were they wouldn’t be buying here and Melbourne is a favourite largely owing to its huge education precinct.

These charges are still well below those levied by other Asian jurisdictions like Singapore and Hong Kong on foreign property investors. And the $5000 for the Feds is not a tax, it funds the new FIRB regime which will prevent younger generations from marching on Harry Triguboff’s head office and lopping off his head in due course as they’re priced out of their own housing market by dodgy foreign buyers.

Another shameful contribution from Dad’s Army.