Call to lift stamp duty concession thresholds by $250k in Qld
The 'lazy tax' needs an update in the Sunshine State, according to a prominent real estate CEO.
At present, first-time buyers in Queensland can only pay no stamp duty on properties where the home is purchased for less than $500,000.
That’s despite the median house price climbing upwards of $760,000 in Greater Brisbane – and up around $1 million the closer you get to the central business district.
And with home ownership levels steadily declining across Queensland, the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) is ramping up calls for “an overdue revision” to the tax thresholds.
Antonia Mercorella, CEO at the REIQ, flagged that the institute is advocating for a $250,000 increase to the first home buyer threshold, to better reflect current-day property prices, noting that “the average cost of an entry-level property has rapidly outpaced the current threshold of the first home buyer’s concession being $500,000”.
With the threshold not having been reviewed since 2008, Ms Mercorella remarked that “it raises the question of the effectiveness of a first home buyer stamp duty concession when the ability to utilise it is severely limited”.
Pushing for this now to be markedly higher, she stated: “While we are yet to see any appetite from the state government to tackle the inefficient and regressive tax that is stamp duty, a sensible interim measure would be to lift the concessional threshold for first home buyers to a figure of at least $750,000.”
According to Ms Mercorella, the change, if enacted, would be “a sensible starting point for the suite of stamp duty reforms that the REIQ have been strenuously advocating for over many years”.
Noting that stamp duty can cost first time buyers extra “tens of thousands”, she argued the “lazy tax” is stifling the state’s housing mobility.
She conceded that stamp duty “rewards the state government coffers while punishing those starting their home ownership journey”.
“We think it’s time to review that decision as Queensland has the lowest levels of home ownership in the country,” the CEO stressed.
“The Queensland government recently announced its intent to help more Queenslanders buy their first home, and one of the biggest obstacles to home ownership is stamp duty, so reforming stamp duty would be a powerful move towards that goal,” Ms Mercorella concluded.
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