HOUSING

IMPORTANCE OF HOUSING

Adequate housing is one of the necessities of life

For the Christian Democratic Party, a family home is more than a mere asset.  It is central to the life of the family and the raising of children.  For most people, the acquisition of their own home remains ‘the great Australian dream’.

TAXES ON HOUSING

The Christian Democratic Party believes that, in the first instance, the best government housing policy is one which encourages and does not obstruct people providing for their own basic housing needs.

Therefore, as with the provision of basic food, all levels of government are obliged not to burden basic housing with unjust taxes and regulations.

Federal, state and local governments have seen ordinary people trying to purchase their family home as a taxation opportunity and loaded them with onerous taxes and regulations.  Hidden and obvious government taxes and charges account for between 11 - 17% of the purchase price of the average house.

Consequently, CDP asserts that the most efficient way to assist home ownership would be through the abolition of stamp duty and all other taxes on housing.

REGULATIONS LIMITING LAND SUPPLY

In the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s the median house price was around three times the median household income.  Today in Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane, the median house price is more than six times the median income and in Sydney and Perth more than eight times.

The traditional link between house prices and incomes has been broken because of an astronomical rise in the price of the land component of the median house price while the building  component of housing costs have tended to follow inflation.

Where land once represented 25% of the cost of a new house and land package, it is now 60%.

The so-called 'land shortage ' that has caused this astronomical rise in the cost of land is entirely the product of government planning regulation and zoning restrictions.  There is abundant land suitable for housing on the edge of all Australian cities.

In short, home buyers have been squeezed  by an ‘urban planning plague’  designed by governments to return windfall profits to government land development corporations in preference to maintaining  a supply of affordable land for home buyers.

The CDP:-

1. Supports making home interest payments tax deductible up to a determined level of interest payment for means tested threshold household income levels.

2. Supports changing the focus of government agencies involved with the release of residential land from profit making to creating affordable land.

3. Supports a review and, where necessary, an amendment or repeal of all unnecessary government regulations which contribute to both the shortage of supply of land, reduce competition in the market and add to the cost of housing land when it is finally released onto the market.

4. Supports reducing the demand for residential land in capital cities by encouraging decentralization of populations to regional centres through taxation and other government incentives to industry, small business and home buyers.

5. Supports direct taxpayer funded housing for people who are genuinely unable, not merely reluctant, to provide for their own housing needs

6. Supports stronger land tenure rights for the owners and tenants of land to prevent arbitrary damage being done to their rights by any level of government and a just compensation scheme for government caused damage.