In the Property Council’s recently released ‘Stacked against us’ it was revealed that 32 per cent of a new house and land package in Brisbane and 33.3 per cent of a new apartment are made of taxes.
The Property Council’s Queensland Division has put forward seven recommendations to ease pressure on the state’s housing supply and set Queenslanders up for the future.
Recommendation one was to support first home buyers by expanding the first homeowner (FHO) grant.
Specifically, the Property Council has called for an extension of the FHO grant to reflect the steep increase in median house prices by increasing the ceiling to $1,000,000.
However, it is important the grant remains focused on new products including townhouses, modular homes and dwellings purchased off-the-plan – grants for existing dwellings will only stimulate further demand for the limited pool of established homes.
The second recommendation was a call for the introduction of off-the-plan transfer duty concessions for buyers choosing to enter into contracts for apartments, resulting in an increase of pre-sales.
This will help turn speculative supply into completed projects and roofs over people’s heads.
Broadening Build-to-rent land tax concessions was the third recommendation in the report, as Queensland’s current incentives do not currently go far enough to make us competitive with other states.
Broadening the land tax concessions to all Build-to-rent projects and increasing concessions to 100 per cent for projects that deliver 10 per cent affordable housing will go a long way to ensuring this vital asset can flourish in Queensland.
The fourth recommendation is a call for the government to implement an institutional investment framework to address the state’s prohibitive tax settings that add a burden to the delivery of new homes.
With the revelation that the government received a $3.5 billion windfall from transfer duty alone over the past three years, recommendation five has called on the government to quarantine this windfall for coordinated infrastructure delivery to unlock new land.
Queensland’s land tax and transfer duty thresholds are in dire need of a review.
‘Stacked against us’ recommendation six called for r review of both thresholds to adjust for rising property prices to ensure revenue neutrality for government and cost neutrality for developers, home buyers and home owners.
The seventh and final recommendation is perhaps the simplest.
It is a call for the government to commit to no new taxes or charges to provide industry with certainty and building confidence with investors.