My first instinct is “yes” but then I thought about it and I think it’s just going to exacerbate the short-stay problem unless combined with other measures.
My first instinct is “yes” but then I thought about it and I think it’s just going to exacerbate the short-stay problem unless combined with other measures.
The people at prosper have put some thought into this. https://www.prosper.org.au/campaigns/stamp-duty-to-land-tax/ there scheme allows the elderly to defer the tax until sale which prevents them from being forced to sale but still incentivises it.
I didn’t realise that the idea was to replace Stamp Duty with land tax. The biggest hurdle I see with that idea is that Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia* have all privatised their land registries. Stamp Duty now goes to private companies and not the state governments. They can’t simply replace stamp duty with a land tax.
*WA han’t totally privatised their Land registrar, but the process of collecting Stamp Duty is private and the proceeds of a land transfer don’t go to the government.
As bad as privatising land registries as it’s not like the 6% stamp duty you pay is going to the land registry. There’s probably a nominal fee that these land registries are getting on each lookup and transfer.