Letter to the Age
At last there is some openness from the property investor lobby! Caroline Lawrey, Housing Industry Association Victorian executive director, claimed that a property owner had the right to determine when and when it was developed (Age 16/11).
With rising land values, leaving land idle and preventing its use by others causes land values to rise. And it is not “houses” whose costs are spiralling upwards, but the land on which they sit!
The proposal to tax holders of under-used land more heavily would free up underused land and assist in making homes more affordable. But the HIA consider that property should be deemed an investment opportunity rather than as a family residence.
Karl Williams
Tecoma
