Governments, Taxes and Real Estate
Real Estate Vulnerable to Predatory Taxes
There have been a number of articles recently commenting on the state of the Sydney real estate market. After a long boom, things have definitely slowed down and prices have pulled back from their peaks.
Contributing to a slowdown in activity has been the attempted revenue grab by the State Government with their increase in Land Tax and also the Vendor Tax on investment property. Both of these measures make property investment in NSW a much less attractive prospect.
Unsurprisingly (except to the morons in the State Government) investors have decided that they have better things to do with their money than hand it over to Bob Carr and Co to fritter away. According to some articles, real estate investors have virtually abandoned NSW for more attractive areas.
A more sinister note behind all this is the targeting of real estate as a source of tax revenues. In NSW, every property owner is now registered for Land Tax, although at present owner occupiers are exempt. How long before that changes?
Readers of the Sovereign Individual will recall the point that real estate is an obvious target for governments for the simple reason that you can't move it! In the decades ahead, my guess is that we will see an increasing load of taxes on real estate for the simple reason that other revenue streams will diminish or prove inadequate.
Finally for today, an excellent article from Miranda Devine in the "Sydney Morning Herald" reviewing again the ineptitude of the NSW Labour Government in providing basic infrastructure and services such as water. Read it here.
There have been a number of articles recently commenting on the state of the Sydney real estate market. After a long boom, things have definitely slowed down and prices have pulled back from their peaks.
Contributing to a slowdown in activity has been the attempted revenue grab by the State Government with their increase in Land Tax and also the Vendor Tax on investment property. Both of these measures make property investment in NSW a much less attractive prospect.
Unsurprisingly (except to the morons in the State Government) investors have decided that they have better things to do with their money than hand it over to Bob Carr and Co to fritter away. According to some articles, real estate investors have virtually abandoned NSW for more attractive areas.
A more sinister note behind all this is the targeting of real estate as a source of tax revenues. In NSW, every property owner is now registered for Land Tax, although at present owner occupiers are exempt. How long before that changes?
Readers of the Sovereign Individual will recall the point that real estate is an obvious target for governments for the simple reason that you can't move it! In the decades ahead, my guess is that we will see an increasing load of taxes on real estate for the simple reason that other revenue streams will diminish or prove inadequate.
Finally for today, an excellent article from Miranda Devine in the "Sydney Morning Herald" reviewing again the ineptitude of the NSW Labour Government in providing basic infrastructure and services such as water. Read it here.
posted by Kevin Francis at
4:07 pm
