It’s a blessed day here in the RiotACT bunker having been blessed with TWO media releases from Liberal Leader Zed Seselja.
In the latest one he’s calling on the Chief Minister to use the now well-honed backflipping skills to make a cut to stamp duty, supposedly in the name of housing affordability.
I have a problem with this. When my friends buy their houses they find out how much they can borrow and then get the best house they can with the money available, including stamp duty and all the other overheads.
So cutting stamp duty won’t change anything. It will transfer money from the rate and taxpayers in general to the property vendors who will get to keep a larger chunk of the pie.
It’ll also be brillo for real-estate agents who’s slice of the pie is a fraction of the vendors. I suspect that’s where this idea is coming from.
But housing affordability? Supply and demand is the only thing that’s going to make a difference.