More good policy:
Foreign buyers of property in NSW will be slugged with a 4 per cent stamp duty surcharge from this month and will pay an extra 0.75 per cent land tax from 2017.
The measures are set to be announced by NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian in her second budget on June 21.
Fairfax Media had foreshadowed the possibility of the moves after Ms Berejiklian refused to rule them out after similar surcharges were increased for foreign buyers in Victoria in April.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas increased its existing stamp duty surcharge from 3 per cent to 7 per cent and a land tax surcharge for “absentee owners” from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
In May, the NSW government announced buyers and sellers of real estate would have to prove their residency and citizenship status to the NSW government before a sale is completed.
Ms Berejiklian said the NSW stamp duty and land tax measures are expected to raise $1 billion for the government over the next four years.
This was always going to happen once Victoria launched the campaign and gives the lie to the various locusts declaring it will drive demand from one state to another.
Good to see the land tax creeping in too. Let’s see much much more of that given the degree of land banking in the trade.
I put it you that this is the thin end of the wedge and quite rightly. Australian oxygen exports (that is the foreign property buyer trade) are going to be taxed like smokers into the future. They have no moral standing with the community so will be hit over and again. Especially so given regional taxes on foreign buyers are much higher than our own.
Rent seekers like Highrise Harry and his media foghorns will complain but it’s not likely to deter the trade given Australian oxygen remains competitive with US and Canadian air.
