NSW’s newest Premier, Chris Minns, declared Labor’s election victory a “golden opportunity for a new government — a young government — to look at what the future can be”. So what’s in store for the state’s property sector?
In becoming the first Labor leader of Australia’s most populous state since Kristina Keneally’s heavy defeat in the 2011 election, Mr Minns, the member for Kogarah in Sydney’s south, explained his government would “govern for everybody.”
Prior to his recent victory, the newly crowned NSW Premier campaign included several hefty housing-related promises.
Earlier this year, Mr Minns proposed his own iteration of the outgoing Liberal party’s stamp duty reform which eliminated stamp duty for first home buyers purchasing a property below $800,000, while offering a concession rate for those obtaining a home valued between $800,000 and $1 million.
He described the move as providing a “direct tax cut to 95 per cent of first home buyers.”
In addition to its stamp duty proposal, the NSW Labor party also proposed undertaking a $30 million pilot build-to-rent project on the state’s south coast, a move which was applauded by the Property Council of Australia (PCA).
“No-grounds” evictions will also come to an end in the state under Labor leadership, while promising the introduction of a NSW rental commissioner tasked with being an “advocate and voice for renters by working closely with government, consumer affairs, stakeholders, and renters.”
When enacted, it would see NSW following the lead set by the ACT earlier this month.
Pre-election, the Minns-led party introduced the idea of establishing Homes NSW, an agency billed as “driving the delivery of more housing options and managing social housing in order to tackle the state’s housing crisis.”
Further housing-related policy promises from the incoming Labor party included:
– Longer-term funding certainty for homelessness and housing support organisations and tenancy advocacy services dealing with the fall-out from the housing crisis;
– Seeing all planning decisions will be made by the Minister for Planning; and
– No new developments on dangerous floodplains.
