Prime Minister of Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) creates a ‘policy for the next generation’ as it launches a major overhaul of tax settings for first-time homebuyers in the state said to focus on.
In an opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday, Dominique Perrotet said: “We need to think big, do things differently and deliver new policies that move NSW forward.
“I want to make policies for the next generation, not for the next election.”
The government’s First Home Buyer’s Choice scheme allows people who purchase real estate under $1.5 million (US$1 million) to choose between a one-time lump sum stamp tax payment or an annual land tax.
Mr Perote, who has long spoken out about his disdain for the stamp duty, passed the reform bill in parliament last year.
Prime Minister and Treasurer Matt Keene will launch First Home Buyer’s Choice in southwest Sydney on Monday.
But Labor on Monday criticized the policy for being a broad “permanent tax” on family homes, countering it with its own policy, replacing the existing tax exemption threshold for first home buyers with the highest priced home. Or pulled up to the apartment. $800,000.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the current median house price in New South Wales is well above labor standards at $1,125,600.
Stamp duty will also be partially exempted for first-time homebuyers who purchase up to $1 million in homes under Labor’s scheme.
The issue is likely to become an election issue, so Shadow Treasurer Daniel Mookay said Labor had offered better policies to first-time home buyers.
“With falling real wages, rising interest rates and soaring tolls, annual land tax payments will make household budgets even more painful,” Mr Mookay said.
“We have a better plan. Tens of thousands of first-time homebuyers get tax breaks,” he added.
“You don’t have to worry about us putting land taxes on their homes every year. This could go on forever.”
Congressional Budget Office modeling estimates that about 95% of first-time homebuyers, or 46,000 people, will have access to full or partial waivers under Labor’s expanded scheme.
This will cost $733 million over the first three years.
An estimated 30,000 to 46,000 people will receive relief under existing programs.
Australian Associated Press is an Australian news agency.