NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has vowed to abolish stamp duty for first home buyers for properties up to $800,000 if the party wins government in March.Credit:James Brickwood,Peter Rae
Labor says independent modelling by the parliamentary budget office shows that within the first three years of Labor’s changes,27,700 first home buyers across NSW would have paid no stamp duty. An additional 18,800 first homebuyers would have paid a discounted rate.
The opposition says this equates to 95 per cent of all first home buyers in NSW paying no tax or a reduced rate. The median property price in December in Sydney was $1.01 million and $691,509 in regional NSW,according to property data firm CoreLogic.
Labor’s policy will be funded by abolishing the government’s land tax option for first home buyers,with the parliamentary budget office costing the opposition’s plan at $722 million over four years.
The government has allocated $728.6 million for its policy over the same period.
Under Premier Dominic Perrottet’s new laws,which passed parliament in November,a first home buyer can opt in to a land tax for properties under $1.5 million and will pay an annual levy of $400 plus a 0.3 per cent tax on the value of their land.
While Perrottet’s new property tax scheme will not be fully operational until January 16,any first homeowners who have bought property since the laws passed will be able to seek a refund on their stamp duty before switching to the annual tax.
Treasury officials have estimated about 6500 first homebuyers will opt in to a broad land tax each year,which equates to about 3.4 per cent of annual residential property sales.