Greens Push Tax Reforms, Rent Caps in Housing Crisis
The Greens say the election housing battle lines are now clear, with Labor tinkering around the edges while prices soar, Dutton’s debt plan set to send prices into the stratosphere, while only the Greens will tackle negative gearing and capital gains tax handouts that are pushing prices out of reach of renters and first home buyers.
The major parties are only acting on first home buyers after years of Greens pressure, and while it’s good to see Labor starting to take the problem seriously, by leaving investor tax handouts flowing and rents uncapped, the problem will only get worse.
The Greens said they won’t stand in the way of Labor’s changes to the first home guarantee scheme or further investment in housing construction. However, the Greens on Sunday reiterated their urgent call for action to stop the housing crisis getting worse, including grandfathering negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount handouts to one property only, capping rent increases and government investment in public housing.
The Greens have also said Peter Dutton’s plan is a dangerous debt trap that could push house prices to skyrocket even further out of reach of renters and first homebuyers. Dutton’s plan announced today will lift house prices with more money entering the market, and mean that after the first five years of what is typically a 30 year mortgage, first home buyers will see a massive spike in their mortgage repayments.
Labor’s plan also won’t lower mortgages for first home buyers, keeping them in housing stress. According to CoreLogic data, the average house price in Australian capital cities is over $1 million. With a 5% deposit under Labor’s First Home Guarantee scheme, a borrower faces repayments over $6,000 a month, or nearly three quarters of the average full-time income, meaning home ownership remains out of reach for the vast majority of renters.
The government’s proposal to build more homes is over 8 years and will at best mean only approximately 80 homes per electorate per year starting in two years.
“Renters and first homebuyers are on the national agenda because of the Greens.
“The election housing battle lines are now clear. Labor tinkers while prices soar, the Liberals will send prices even higher, but the Greens will fix investor tax handouts and cap rents.
“We won’t stand in the way of Labor’s policy, but tinkering around the edges won’t be enough to stop house prices skyrocketing because of tax handouts to wealthy property investors, and Peter Dutton’s plan is a dangerous debt trap that could push house prices into the stratosphere.
“Under Labor’s plan your mortgage will still be huge, Peter Dutton will make it even bigger, and neither of them are doing anything about rents.
“While Labor and the Liberals give $176b in handouts to wealthy property investors, house prices will continue to skyrocket out of reach of renters.
“To fix the housing crisis we urgently need to reform negative gearing and the capital gains discount, cap rent increases and get the government to build homes people can genuinely afford.
“Tinkering around the edges means allowing house prices to continue to soar and generations of renters locked out of affordable housing altogether.
“After today’s announcements, the choice is clear.
“If you’re worried about your rent or mortgage, you can’t keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result.
“The Greens are the party of renters and first homebuyers, and in minority government the Greens will get Labor to take real action to fix the housing crisis.”
“Jim Chalmers once said that reforming negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount was the most meaningful lever the government could pull on housing affordability. He was 100% right.
“While the Greens won’t oppose Labor’s tinkering around the edges, the reality is the only way we finally give millions of renters a chance at home ownership is by scrapping negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount for property investors with more than one home.
Now that Labor has acknowledged it possible for the government to directly fund the construction of housing for first home buyers, the Greens will push Labor to adopt our full plan to establish a government developer to directly build 610,000 homes sold and rented to renters at capped prices.
“With regards to the home guarantee, we’ve seen the show before, another first home buyer scheme promising the world, but all that happens is house prices and bank profits keep going up, while more and more people are locked out of home ownership forever.
“While Labor tinkers and Dutton proposes dangerous debt traps that will turbo charge house prices, the Greens will use minority parliament to push Labor to reform negative gearing, cap rents and establish a government developer to build 610,000 genuinely affordable homes for renters.”
https://greens.org.au/news/media-release/housing-battle-lines-drawn-labor-tinkers-while-prices-soar-dutton-sends-prices