‘House price decline was deliberate,’ Liberals say
Western Australia Liberal deputy leader Bill Marmion has declared that the three consecutive increases in land tax that led to housing price decreases were deliberate.
Mr Marmion said the increases by the previous Liberal-National government were part of a plan to make “housing more affordable” by decreasing the value of homes.
Treasurer Ben Wyatt said that while these comments bring little comfort to those who are currently facing negative equity, “they are now aware that their plight was the direct result of misguided Liberal Party policies which were planned with that result in mind”.
“The comments by the deputy leader of the Opposition show that the Liberal Party still have no idea how to manage an economy, nor do they care for the damage that their time in office inflicted on the State of Western Australia,” Mr Wyatt said.
The Liberal Party plan worked, with the median house price falling under the previous government by about $40,000, which represents a 70 per cent decline since its peak.
The members for Nedlands now admitted this was a deliberate strategy of the Barnett Harvey government, which increased land tax three times between 2013 and 2015.
“This is an Opposition who clearly are yet to learn anything despite being in Opposition now for more than two years and continue the same way they did when in government — that is, to fail to think carefully about future consequences,” Mr Wyatt said.
More from this writer:
-
Buyer’s agent spills on climbing rentvest popularity
-
Green shoots in Aussie housing values
-
How a Hobart purchase set this investor up for a successful portfolio
-
1 in 4 Aussies wants to buy a property now
-
The WA hotspots seeing a median sale price boost
-
How this investor is paving the way
-
The most complex part of property investing