Australia’s property lobby would have us believe investors are selfless public servants. It’s just profiteering |
You might have noticed that the property lobby is having a meltdown.
You can almost set your watch to it. The moment anyone suggests winding back investor tax breaks, the same talking points come flooding out. Rents will skyrocket. Investors will flee. The market will collapse. Renters will suffer.
There’s just one problem: renters are already suffering under the exact system the property lobby is defending.
If these tax breaks are supposed to keep rents low, renters across Australia would probably like a word.
Over the past decade, rent prices for houses have exploded. Nationally, renting a house costs about $450 more every week than it did 10 years ago. In capital cities, the increase is even worse at $500. For many households, that is the equivalent of an extra $25,000 a year.
This is the system the property lobby wants to hang on to. A system where taxpayers spend billions lining the pockets of investors who make losses and chase short-term gains. A system where housing is treated less like........