The Australian Tax Office has released figures on the extent of negative gearing in Australia ahead of the Henry Tax Review. This is no accident. They are preparing the ground for Ken Henry’s changes. The picture drawn is not pretty: it shows the nation’s...
BLOG: land supply
Housing Media Wars
photo credit: chrisjohnbeckett With the housing bubble accelerating each day, sometimes you wonder if it is ever going to pop. Tim Colebatch has written a number of key articles of recent, including this one on negative gearing pointing out that investors now account...
GAIC fails to sprawl
The Brumby government's ill-fated Growth Areas Infrastructure Tax was defeated in the Victorian Senate last evening. This spells the danger of poor land policy. Why did they attempt to charge $95,000 per hectare as a flat fee? Why wasn't this infrastructure cost...
Brumby panders to land bankers yet again
The Brumby-Madden announcement to increase Melbourne by the equivalent size of Canberra is exasperating. 100,000 vacant sites already exist in Melbourne in areas already serviced by infrastructure (according to the recent census). The government has failed us...
Developers get 2nd Free Lunch in as many weeks
Land speculators with portfolios in Coolaroo, Cranbourne East, Caroline Springs, Nunawading, and Parkville will be celebrating with their second free lunch in as many weeks. Brumby's announcement of new train stations in these suburbs has delivered windfall gains to...
Land Speculators Reign!
photo credit: Dean Terry If ever we needed any more motivation to burn the midnight oil, the Brumby government's latest handout to the property lobby is just this. Just nine months since he handed out free lunch with the 90,000 blocks of zoned land announced in March,...
Speculative land rationing our opportunity
Property lobby pushes all the usual red herrings whilst ignoring the speculative causes to affordability pressures. Demographia International’s new report on housing affordability again pushes the “unending sprawl forever” mantra. Report author Wendell Cox rolled out...