UDIA NSW welcomes yesterday’s announcement that citizens of New Zealand, Finland, Germany and South Africa will no longer be required to pay the foreign investor surcharge in NSW on home purchases and land.
“UDIA has long advocated for the NSW Government to focus on restoring consumer confidence and supporting the financing of projects – particularly actions to remove the barriers to apartment supply. The apartment market faces very specific challenges with completions for FY21/22 near record lows,” said Steve Mann, CEO UDIA NSW.
The market faces a double whammy from a lack of consumer confidence and government charges such as the foreign investor surcharge that are holding back pre-sales. Restoring consumer confidence and giving financing a boost are essential to support residential development. A strong apartment market is critical to boosting the supply of new housing and placing downward pressure on rents.
In our pre budget submission last year, as part of a range of recommendations, we called on government to reduce foreign investor surcharges on new build apartments.
Yesterday’s announcement which takes effect immediately is a welcome step as individuals that are citizens of New Zealand, Finland, Germany and South Africa who are purchasing residential-related property or who own land in their own capacity will no longer be required to pay surcharge purchaser duty and surcharge land tax.
Refunds may be available if you are from one of the nations concerned, and paid surcharge purchaser duty or surcharge land tax on or after 1 July 2021.
“While this first step is a good outcome, in our Election Campaign strategy – Let’s Tackle the Housing Shortage, UDIA is advocating to remove the foreign investor surcharge for all nationalities and introduce a rebate on transfer duties,” said Mr Mann.
This will strengthen the languishing apartment market by boosting pre-sales. Shoring up pre-sales will enable more developments to proceed under the current challenging conditions, with rising inflation and escalating interest rates, meaning more homes can be built for the people of NSW.
“Compared to where we were at the peak of supply, we now have a gap of 20,000 apartments per annum and we must turn this around if we are to tackle the housing supply crisis in NSW,” said Steve Mann.
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Media Enquiries:
Deanna Lane 0416 295 898 or dlane@udiansw.com.au