RMIT Media Release

Debate around negative gearing reform and capital gains tax has heated up in the past few days.

This morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the ABC he’s ruled out taking negative gearing reforms to election.

RMIT’s Dr Liam Davies, an expert in social and affordable housing, can respond to the PM’s comments.

Last week, Davies co-authored a report calling for negative gearing to only be available to investors whose properties meet national standards for fair rental contracts and construction quality.

Dr Liam Davies, social and affordable housing:

“The Commonwealth foregoes about $6 billion per year in tax revenue due to negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts. Despite this large spend, there is very poor transparency of outcomes, particularly for tenants.

“The debate about negative gearing and capital gains tax has, so far, been largely binary. Some argue to remove negative gearing and capital gains tax, while others argue to retain it.

“However, there is another option: to make negative gearing and capital gains tax an opt-in system for investors whose properties meet national standards for fair rental contracts and construction quality.

“We have outlined these options in a recently released report.

“Prime Minister Albanese said he is concerned removal of these concessions would decrease housing supply. Others claim removing concessions would raise rents.

“But what Australia really needs is a supply of affordable and secure rental housing. Our solution would maintain the tax advantages for investors and housing supply, while also increasing security for tenants.”

Read more about the proposal.

Dr Liam Davies is a lecturer in RMIT’s Centre for Urban Research and an expert in social housing policy and urban planning. His research looks at state and commonwealth government policies that affect affordable housing.