Double whammy for Sydney home hunters

‘Double whammy’ for Sydney home huntersWith average Sydney house prices soaring above the $1 million mark, home buyers are enduring a “double whammy” of rampaging property prices and higher stamp duty bills, says the Property Council.Growth over the June quarter has resulted in an 8.4 per cent increase in home prices in Sydney, with the Domain House Price Report finding the $1,000,616 median house price is higher than London’s and nearing New York’s.The Property Council’s NSW executive director Glenn Byres says stamp duty rates increase from 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent for the value of homes above $1 million. “All homes over $1 million will be burdened with the extra cost of finding a minimum of $40,000 in stamp duty,” Byres says, adding that stamp duty is a “bad tax for homebuyers, a bad tax for the economy and governments need to axe it”.Byres says poor land release, inefficient planning systems and excessive property taxes has led to a “decade of chronic under supply”.Research released earlier this year shows Sydney missed its housing targets by ,000 over the past decade and without change, will fall short of demand by 190,000 homes by 2024. “It’s time all levels of government stepped up to the mark in delivering a healthy housing market that can meet supply and improve affordability,” Byres adds.Meanwhile, results from the latest CoreLogic RP Data Nine Rewards Consumer sentiment survey find that 60 per cent of respondents around Australia were undeterred by rising capital city home values over the past three years, and still think it’s a good time to buy property.Unsurprisingly, Sydneysiders and people in regional NSW were the least optimistic about current buying conditions, although Sydney and Melbourne-based respondents were the most optimistic about selling conditions.The regions where survey respondents were most optimistic about buying conditions were in Tasmania, regional South Australia, Brisbane and regional Queensland.