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Higher taxes to apply to 50,000 NSW properties; Interest rate anxieties worry buyers more than sellers; and Tasmania moves ahead with stamp duty shakeup
Welcome to Property Buzz! I’m Sebastian Holloman and today is Friday, 21 June.
The NSW state budget has come under fire for including changes to property-related taxes that could deter investors.
The budget contains a provision that holds the land tax threshold at $1.075 million, which will increase the number of rental properties subject to land tax as property values rise.
These changes are expected to affect 30,000 properties immediately and generate $1.68 billion in revenue over four years.
The state is also increasing the foreign purchaser duty surcharge and foreign owner land tax surcharge, which would impact a further 20,000 foreign-owned properties and could reduce the attractiveness of NSW as a property investment location.
Concerns over interest rate hikes continue to impact Australians, with a recent Proptrack survey revealing that buyers are more worried than sellers,
The survey found a 1 per cent decrease in respondents believing it’s a good time to buy, while those thinking it’s a good time to sell increased by 24 per cent to a total of 41 per cent.
Interest rate worries were the main cause of uncertainty, while mortgage stress due to increased loan repayments was also found to be affecting property owners’ wellbeing.
And over in Tasmania, the state government has passed legislation which will see first-time buyers spending less than $750,000 not paying any stamp duty.
The law applies retroactively to any qualifying buyer who purchased their property from February 2024, and extends for a period of two years.
The bill also extends a 50 per cent stamp duty concession for pensioners downsizing their homes and provides a land tax exemption for newly built long-term rental housing.
The estimated $20.3 million cost of the program will be offset by a new levy on short-stay accommodation.
That’s Property Buzz for today. See you again tomorrow, 22 June, for your daily dose of Property Buzz.
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