Low turnover
The annual take from stamp duty and land transfer duty in New South Wales remained reasonably strong at around $8 billion over the year to May 2019, as bracket creep has pushed property taxes far too high.
Those numbers are flattered by settlements from the tail end of the construction boom, however.
And even still transaction levels have continued to plunge towards decade lows over the year to May 2019.
Once the off-the-plan boom washes through the transaction levels will be at decade lows for sure.
While I agree that stamp duty is an inefficient tax at its current too-high levels I won't ever get behind the well-meaning but ultimately flawed push for a broad-based land tax (whereby the unimproved land valuations mysteriously yet inevitably rise vigorously every year, regardless of prevailing market conditions).
Many investors already know about this all too well.
For all its foibles at least stamp duty is a known dollar amount.
If you trust governments to maintain annual property levies at a reasonable level, well...ha.
