Like a wind vane, “Aussie John” Symond has flipped again, this time cautiously backing negative gearing reform. From The AFR:
“Negative gearing is a very popular topic,” Mr Symond told The Australian Financial Review on Thursday.
“You can very easily say ‘Can it be improved?’ Yes, it can be. But it’s got to be in an orderly way where they tackle the whole of the tax system. It would be a mistake to do it piecemeal…
“As a general comment, most areas of the tax system have got room for improvement, including negative gearing. But it’s got to be fair across the board. If you want to hit real estate, let’s sit down and talk about the whole real estate-housing problem. It’s not just ‘We can go and jack up personal income taxes for people earning over $200,000’, because that’s what it’s akin to.”
It’s worth reminding readers that Symonds has been flip flopping on negative gearing for years.
In 2013, Aussie John said the following on ABC’s Q&A:
“Negative gearing wasn’t designed for people who can afford to go and buy $1 million, $2 million, $3 million houses or apartments for negative gearing to offset the bulk of their interest payment off their tax. So negative gearing does need to be looked at in the tax system because I don’t think it is fair at the moment. I think it leans very heavily to the high income earners and that needs to be brought into line, as is hundreds of other aspects of the tax system”.
And in 2014 when Symond lamented that negative gearing is killing the first home buyer market:
“Negative gearing is a great tax break, but it needs a total overhaul to make it fairer. First home buyers have no hope of getting into home ownership these days unless they’re helped by their families,” Mr Symond said”…
Then in May last year, Symond strongly opposed Labor’s negative gearing reforms:
In the past month, Mr Symond, the founder and chairman of Aussie Home Loans, has warned of plummeting house prices and a possible economic recession in Australia if Labor’s proposed changes to negative gearing are implemented…
Mr Symond told 2GB last week that real estate prices could fall by up to 20 per cent if Labor got into power.
On Sunday, he went further and raised the prospect of recession.
“It is frightening and it will frighten others . . . and it creates this stampede. And that’s my concern that there could be a glut of properties come on the market, force the prices down, and then all of a sudden it could be Armageddon with the housing industry that’s propped up the Australian economy the last four years,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program.
So in short, Aussie John supports negative gearing reform as long as it doesn’t materially impact house prices. This means that he doesn’t really support reform at all, only the appearance of reform.
