The Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, says the staggering $373,000 the average Victorian is being slugged in taxes to buy a house and land package has finally revealed the full extent of the Allan Labor government’s “unprecedented financial incompetence”.
Mr Walsh says anyone buying a new house in this state will now spend the first decade of their mortgage paying government taxes.
He says Victorians are being denied house and land packages and instead are being financially ravaged with Allan Labor government “house and tax packages”.
“Data just released by the Centre for International Economics, and commissioned by the Housing Industry Association, shows how brutal this mega taxing is – new home buyers are facing the extraordinary slug of taxes paid on taxes, skyrocketing their costs at a time when Labor governments state and federal claim to be doing all they can to remedy the nation’s housing crisis,” Mr Walsh says.
“In my electorate, indeed across all northern Victoria, small communities are struggling to accommodate desperately needed workforces because the Allan Labor government has failed, year after year, to implement any kind of viable housing strategy,” he says.
“So instead of building new homes, Victorians are turning to buying existing properties to save themselves a small fortune – and that does nothing for the housing crisis which is sabotaging growth in communities such as Echuca, Cohuna, Kerang and Swan Hill.”
Separate analysis by money.com.au has also confirmed Victoria has a ‘new home premium’ forcing mortgages higher and higher to offset the costs.
Mr Walsh says the Allan Labor government is strangling the housing industry in red, green and black tape and it is out of control.
He says despite “promises which have been proved lies” about building 800,000 homes in a decade to cure the state’s housing ills the research proves everything the Allan Labor government does it setting the sector into reverse gear.
“Victorians have been hit with a massive $157,000 housing tax hike in the span of just six years – if you buy a typical $866,000 new four-bedroom, two-bathroom home the Allan Labor government’s cut has jumped from 37 per cent to 43 per cent since 2019,” Mr Walsh explains.
“If you really want to know what you are paying for, have a look at this:
- $154,000 in regulatory costs
- $193,000 in statutory taxes
- $27,000 in infrastructure contributions.”
Housing Industry Association chief economist Tim Reardon says taxes and government charges have more than doubled, but housing supply has not.
He says this shows governments cannot tax their way out of fixing the housing supply problem.
“Part of the costs passed on to buyers include GST paid to civil works specialists preparing land for development, as well as the land tax paid to hold onto the land while increasingly lengthy regulatory requirements are ticked off,” Tim explains.
“This means new home end stamp duty payments are often significantly raised by taxes which have already been paid earlier on in the building cycle,” he says.
“It’s multiple compounding taxes.”
