And as the article says - this data is only from individual tax returns. It doesn’t cover companies.
They’re using “Mr Kumar” as an example here, but this story goes back a long way. Huge parts of the wealthy northern suburbs, and prime real estate near the most popular beaches in Sydney are held by a handful of people. They bought this property a long time ago, but the “newer” property investors are basically working off that template. You can actually walk around those suburbs and find a bunch of empty properties. They don’t care about the rent, they prefer to show as little income as possible. They just want the capital gains when they sell. Often these people are retired and can get significant tax concessions.
The “newer” investors are doing this but with properties which are much cheaper. They do it like a job or a business. It’s not healthy for the country either, but it’s actually less of a rort than the institutional wealth in this country.
Save some for the rest of us!
This is a nation of convicts who aspires to become wardens.
I don’t have an issue with people owning multiple properties, but doing so should be subservient to the provision of a core component of subsistence.
A broad proposal I’ve been mulling is the realisation of profit anywhere in the real estate industry (construction, (re)development, ownership, management, etc.) should only be tolerated contingent to the size of the social housing wait list.
As a broad example, if the wait list is over a year, tax any profit above 5% at 50%. The figures are arbitrary, the point is to make it the responsibility of the group to fix the problem they’ve caused.
tbh landlords occupy a special place that was carved out of necessity nearly a century ago that no longer applies.
We need to revise the laws and start treating rental properties as the business they are.
Maybe it wasn’t about the houses, maybe it was about the class divide that we made along the way.
Is there a downside to limiting houses to a 1per person maximum?
I don’t think limiting is necessary.
Instead we could start by getting rid of John Howard’s capital gains tax discounts on properties. That alone massively distorts where investment dollars go in this country. Of all the fucked things about real estate that has to be the one that is most unfair. Why the hell should you pay less tax on speculating existing property than you do when you work on something that actually produces value?
If that didn’t correct things enough there are more things that could be done: banning ownership by non citizens, replacing stamp duty with annual land tax, incentives to discourage land banking, realistic population targets, and dare I say it; limiting negative gearing to new builds only.
This is always where it gets complicated. One house is pretty limiting. Lots of people have holiday homes - should that become illegal? People buy homes to support family (particularly elderly or disabled family) members in an environment that allows them some space and independence.
Should a married couple be allowed to have two homes? Should I be allowed to buy homes in my kids’ names to get around such a limitation?
I don’t have the answers to any of this. Housing is a super complicated and politically charged topic. There are a million millionaires out there with the bulk of their net worth tied up in the value of their homes. The scary truth is they don’t really want to solve this problem, because if houses stop costing most of a million (or more) dollars to buy, they stop being millionaires.
I would rather have it be a case of everyone gets a house before anyone gets a second, regardless of an individuals economic ability.
Taxing tends to even that out. Increasing the % for every property over ppr.
Of the multifacets there are two bigguns: the cash cow of investment properties and tax breaks, and developer landbanking and artificial restriction of supply on new builds.
Tax the shit out of both of these.
Yes. Many. Here’s the first: mobility.
In my 20s, I didn’t live in the same city for more than a couple years at a time. If I had not been able to rent, I’d have wasted tons of money.
Good point
Cunts
Isn’t that just a generic term for Australians? Like not even an insult? I think there’s gotta be something much worse to call them. “Landlords” might do, it’s basically synonymous with scum of the earth.
The full stop was unspoken, but present to all aussies.
don’t form opinions based on reddit comments.
Nope. Cunt as a singular can be a term of affection. Cunt as a plural is only a positive when used with some adjectives like “crazy” or “mad”. Used without an adjective like that, it’s a harsh put down.
Thank you, that’s helpful. It’s important to learn these cultural nuances of other countries so one doesn’t accidentally offend.
The differences are subtle but unmistakable.
It depends how hard you go on the ‘c’ at the start, IMO
It’s all context. You can tell from the context (an article about landlords) it’s an insult that conveys disgust for the subjects of the article
