| Affordable Homes for All Australians |
| The Rudd Government should ensure that negative gearing of existing property is ceased as soon as practicable, thereby reducing non-beneficial demand.
In the short to medium term, negative gearing provisions should be maintained on newly constructed properties. This would create beneficial investor demand in this climate of undersupply, resulting in a supply side response, and would encourage long-term investing rather than short-term speculation. The Rudd Government should reinstate full Capital Gains Tax provisions on the sale of investment property. The Rudd Government needs to review the recent changes which allow residential property purchases by DIY superannuation funds. The policy should be dropped completely, or altered so that such arrangements can not be undertaken for single dwellings, or that property forming the basis of such arrangements must be newly constructed. |
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| Specific measures |
| Demand Side |
| Supply Side |
| State and Local Governments need to work together to ensure timely and cost effective approval and infrastructure provision in new housing developments. (See UDIA report for specifics)
State Governments need to increase the construction of public housing to take pressure off the private sector. The Rudd Government�s stated objective to encourage private-public partnerships in the provision of affordable housing should be expedited and expanded upon. The Rudd Government�s objective of releasing crown land for development should be expedited. |
| Other measures |
| With the rapid increase in house prices, and more recently rents, the Rudd Government should ask the ACCC to conduct a review on the functioning of the residential property sale and rental markets to ensure that there has been no collusion or price manipulation.
The Rudd Government should extend competition policy to the realestate sector, and should regulate the industry such that no business with a license to sell realestate can let realestate, so that there is clear separation between these functions to increase competition in the provision of housing. |
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| Letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd MP, requesting further immediate action on the housing affordability crisis. |
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