Page 3590 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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terms of supply and planning. It is impossible for us to support this motion with that undeniable fact stripped away from it.
I can understand why Ms Le Couteur does not want that undeniable fact in this motion. I can understand why she wants to just look the other way, because that is what the Greens have done ever since they jumped into bed with Labor in this curious ongoing power-sharing agreement. The Greens are happy to run a protection racket for Labor. They are happy to just sit back and watch it all happen, because the Greens are complicit. This housing affordability crisis is a result of planning initiatives and planning policies that have been adopted by Labor and the Greens. The unfair rates and charges are also a product of this Labor-Greens government. If I were Ms Le Couteur I would not want anyone talking about it either. I would look the other way.
Let us have a look at some nuts and bolts here. We went to Allhomes to look at homes for sale in the ACT. We found a place at Wanniassa. It is not really pertinent for me to mention the address. It is a three-bedroom house and it is for sale at $509,000. That is quite reasonable. We have done the sums on the rates and land tax bill. They come in at just under $5,000 per annum. That equates to $95 per week. It is 95 bucks per week before we get started. Let us say the investment loan to purchase the property sees the investor borrowing $400,000. Over 30 years, with variable rate payments going to both the principal and the interest, we are talking about $1,794 per month. That equates to $414 per week. Before we start, we have got outgoing costs of $509 per week. We have not factored in maintenance. We have not factored in agents’ fees. We have not factored in the risk.
I want to know how on earth anyone is going to offer this property to market at $500 per week. They are not going to. They cannot. They just cannot. The mathematics say that it is not possible. The numbers do not lie. Landlords are not making a fortune here in the ACT. In fact, many of them are barely breaking even or are running things at a loss. The biggest reasons for that are the government’s land supply, planning system and tax regime.
Ms Le Couteur can try to deflect as much as she likes, and I am sure that Ms Berry will nod quietly and roll with this amendment. You can guarantee that it will get up. Of course it will get up. And you can guarantee that once again the ACT community will be dudded because the Greens are successfully riding shotgun for their Labor mates. Ms Le Couteur can glare up towards the house on the hill and she can suggest that all the solutions are to be found up there with the feds, but it is simply not the case.
Investors are pulling out of the market and skipping over to New South Wales. I should point out that over the border in New South Wales they are dealing with the very same federal taxation policies as we are. All you have got to do is talk to any real estate agent about their rent roll and the fact that it is reducing on a week-by-week basis and ask them where these people are actually investing their money. They are just skipping over the border. Newstart is the same in Queanbeyan. It is exactly the same. The federal policies are exactly the same. It is not holding them back.
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