Increased property confidence hinges on SA s reform agenda

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Increased property confidence hinges on SA’s reform agenda

The peak body for Australia’s largest industry has revealed that increased confidence levels in South Australia’s property sector hinge on sustained structural reform, including changes to the GST.

On the ANZ/Property Council Survey’s leading business sentiment index for the September 2015 quarter, South Australia increased by 10 points – or more than nine per cent – to 120 on the confidence index.

Meanwhile, Tasmania and Queensland experienced confidence increases of more than 10 per cent on last quarter with the national average sitting at 131 points.

SA Executive Director of the Property Council Daniel Gannon said South Australia’s ongoing industry confidence hinges on sustained reforms.

“There’s no denying that South Australia is a confidence state, and through tax and planning reform opportunities we have a chance to improve on this result,” said Mr Gannon.

“The State Government has recently announced a key Property Council policy plank in commercial stamp duty abolition – and these sentiment indicators reveal they were right to act.

“South Australians clearly understand the need for tax reform. Recent Property Council research makes it clear they want a tax system that is fairer and simpler with 75 per cent believing it’s extremely or very important to make our system fairer.

“We also know that almost 80 per cent of people believe stamp duty is unfair with 72 per cent of South Australians supporting the idea of abolishing this deadweight tax.

“Confidence levels would likely increase through the abolition of stamp duty in exchange for increasing the GST to 12.5 per cent.

“The September quarter results mean that South Australia trails the national average by 11 points, which is a marked improvement from the June quarter.

“At a time when we need to drive confidence and momentum in South Australia, the time is now right to put our cards on the table and map out our pathway back to prosperity.

“This means the tax reform discussion has only just begun, with planning, local government, population growth and demand piling up in the economic in-tray.”

Mr Gannon also said that the latest index revealed quarterly improvements in the following areas:

  • Forward work schedule expectations; 
  • Staffing level expectations;
  • National economic growth expectations;
  • State economic growth expectations;
  • Interest rate expectations;
  • House capital growth expectations;
  • Office capital growth expectations;
  • Industrial capital growth expectations;
  • Retail capital growth expectations;
  • Retirement living capital growth expectations;
  • Hotel capital growth expectations; and
  • State Government performance index.