[Jan Fisher]

Tasmania is proposing a tax to encourage people to lease out their investment properties and holiday homes.

Will it work? Not sure how they are going to police that.

Twelve groups involved in social and student housing have written to the premier asking for a levy on vacant homes.

Seems like a good idea – the ABC claims there are 2700 empty homes in Hobart alone – but as usual, reality is another thing again.

Victoria has a vacancy tax, it was suspended during COVID, and not a single fine has been issued for non-compliance since 2019 which indicates a lack of political will over the issue.

Is a tax on empty properties feasible? Do you think it will solve the problem of housing?

[Peter]

Ridiculous! More talk about imposing a tax on people who, for whatever reason choose what to do with their own assets!

Why not a tax on inner-city dwellers who use (subsidized) public transport and then complain about us country dwellers using ICE cars!!

[Cosmo]

I agree with Peter regarding the inappropriateness of a further property tax, people leave their properties vacant for a variety of reasons. I would do too after my experience of renting out three almost new capital city houses while overseas only to find them all vandalised by the tenants on my return and RE agents who don’t do their jobs.
Many empty properties are in holiday locations where there is little or no employment and few services.
If we could solve the split family problem we would be half way to solving the housing shortage because over the past few years the housing shortage has increased much faster than the population has increased.
One solution to rapidly building new houses is to prefabricated large parts of them in factories for quick erection on site. We need also to re- establish the building products industries we once had before we allowed greedy company owners to make them in China and Finally if we could get councils to do their job and ensure that building approvals meant the home were safe to live in we would all be better served.

[Ronin]

There should definitely be a cap on properties let out on AirBnB. With a maximum number of days per year. This would free up properties for long term rental.

[Author]

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