WA shows tax reform leadership. Well, I hope so.
WA Treasurer Mike Nathan has heard the call from REIWA President David Airey to end Stamp Duty and fund this by removing exemptions from State Land Tax
David Collyer
REIWA: Abolish Stamp Duty for State Land Tax
Yesterday REIWA president David Airey issued a call in the West Australian newspaper for the WA government to abandon Stamp Duty and fund this by removing the many wheezes from the tattered State Land Tax. Hooray! Airey says: “It’s time…
Thimk, Grattan Institute, Thimk!
If the Grattan thimkers wanted to reignite prosperity and national competitiveness, they would look at the cost of land – for Rural, Manufacturing and Services, for business and for workers alike. Inexpensive land de-risks all economic activity. We have been bloody fools to abandon this vital natural advantage to the ticket –clippers.
Australia’s Magic Pudding
The price of allowing FHBs to access superannuation creates some real winners: existing landowners, banks and the handful of buyers able to buy before the land-price jaws inevitably snap shut again. Everyone else loses – now and in retirement.
Australian property through foreign eyes
By Catherine Cashmore, a market analyst, journalist, and policy thinker, with extensive industry experience in all aspects relating to property. Follow Catherine on Twitter or via her Blog. I had the good fortune to meet two investors from Dallas Texas last week – visiting…
People Power and Housing
By Catherine Cashmore, a market analyst, journalist, and policy thinker, with extensive industry experience in all aspects relating to property. Follow Catherine on Twitter or via her Blog. The protests that washed across major cities and towns a few days ago, covered a wide…
The Senate Housing Affordability Inquiry: Prosper’s submission
Australia has blown a land bubble of immense size. This troubling reality has finally come to the attention of the Senate and obliged it to examine the matter. Prosper Australia’s submission to the Senate Housing Affordability inquiry examines nine key economic…
AHURI is ‘Home Alone’
In an extraordinary outburst, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute has today embraced planning constraints on urban subdivision, elevating ‘developer certainty’ over the risk – heaven forbid! – of oversupply. I kid you not. “While it is almost…
Englobo IV: Land, Land, everywhere but not a place to sit
Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy has been out this week energetically pointing to fresh ‘land releases’ around Melbourne. Growth, or the illusion of growth, is a powerful sedative that buys contentment and political support. He will bang this drum hard.…
House prices, not wages, is the bigger issue
Letters, Australian Financial Review 15 January 2014 p33 Peter Pitt (“High wages force companies to consider offshore options”, AFR January 10) suggests that a lower minimum wage will improve employment retention in Australia. The lower wage countries he uses to…