Politics with Michelle Grattan: Alan Kohler says Labor’s tax changes won’t lower house prices |
Changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount on housing (and probably other assets) are now considered certain in Tuesday’s budget.
We don’t know all the details but the driving idea is to tilt the balance away from investors towards first home buyers.
More broadly, the measures will be part of the budget wider theme of intergenerational equity.
On this podcast we speak to Alan Kohler who, among other roles, is a financial commentator for the ABC. He authored The Great Divide: Australia’s Housing Mess and How to Fix It, published in 2024.
On why Labor is more willing to tackle negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount when it lost elections with such policies in 2019 and 2016, Kohler’s says politics has moved on:
I think now we’ve got to the point where housing affordability is that much worse than it was in 2019, and I think everyone’s ready for something to happen. [However][…] that will not in itself bring house prices down. But it’ll make everyone feel a bit better.
I think now we’ve got to the point where housing affordability is that much worse than it was in 2019, and I think everyone’s ready for something to........