Buyer's Taxing Issue

A NSW proposal to replace stamp duty could benefit downsizers but complicate investors’ plans

- Peter Esho

The NSW government’s plan to abolish stamp duty in favour of a broad-based land tax is a bid to remove one of the major hurdles people face if they want to move homes.

Under the proposed changes, announced as a part of the state budget, homebuyers would be given the option of paying an upfront stamp duty on the purchase or paying an ongoing land tax.

But even though stamp duty has been in place in some form since 1865, it is still believed to be a highly inefficient form of tax that discourages many people from moving.

An example would be downsizers, who are now at retirement age and living in a large family home and would like to move to a smaller, more manageable property. They are often hamstrung because of the large transaction costs.

With a median house price of more than $1 million in Sydney, stamp duty is around $40,000 on a $1 million purchase.

At this stage, the government proposes that owner-occupiers, investors, and owners of commercial properties would face different levels of land tax, which poses an interesting question for property investors and what it might mean for house prices.

Investors could lose out

Looking at the numbers, on the surface it appears that investors who buy large family homes could be losers under a land tax.

Based on the initial figures outlined by the government late last year, they would be forced to pay $1500 plus 1% of the land value each year.

And based on this information, for metropolitan NSW the average residential land value is around $630,400 and the corresponding owner-occupied property tax would be $2391.