Invest property handouts must go: Greens

Taxpayer handouts given to buyers who own two or more investment properties would be scrapped by the Greens as Australia continues to grapple with housing and cost of living crises.

New independent data shows more than 10 per cent of houses in some electorates are owned by people who don’t live in the region, with rent prices jumping simultaneously.

Parliamentary Budget Office data shows more than 600,000 people own two or more investment properties, with 57 per cent of negative gearing deductions going to the top 20 per cent of income earners.

And gender analysis shows 72 per cent of those deductions go to men.

Those deductions, along with capital gains tax deductions, are backed by both major parties.

The Greens say they’d scrap handouts for people who own two or more investment properties, which would save the taxpayer $63 billion that could be put towards other affordable housing initiatives.

Greens leader Adam Bandt described the situation as “cooked”, adding the two major parties were backing more spending on property handouts than public schools.

“With so many people locked out of the housing market, we shouldn’t give billions of dollars to an elite few to help them buy their fifth, sixth and seventh home,” he said.

“The housing market is cooked and these handouts don’t just make inequality worse, they push house prices out of reach for everyone else.

“In balance of power, the Greens will kick the Liberals out and push Labor to fix the housing affordability crisis.”

The Greens pointed to the NSW Northern Rivers seat of Richmond, where they say out-of-towners are driving up rent prices at twice the rate of rises in Sydney.

PBO data shows 89 people own seven or more properties in Richmond, receiving $19 million in tax handouts each year.

That’s an average of $211,236 in public cash each for their properties.

Rental prices in the area have jumped some 20 per cent in a year, with more than one in 10 properties in Richmond owned by someone who lives outside the electorate.

People owning seven or more properties hold 889 houses in Richmond, way above the national average of 660 houses per electorate.

The Greens have committed $21 billion to building a million affordable homes, with 15,000 of them to be climate resilient properties in Richmond and Page.

Alex Mitchell
(Australian Associated Press)