What does NSW Labor win mean for property?

On Saturday (25 March), it was revealed that the Australian Labor Party had secured a win in Australia’s most populous state for the first time in 12 years.

A Labor government will be officially formed in NSW today (27 March), with Premier-elect Chris Minns appointing his leadership team for major portfolios (including Daniel Mookhey, Treasurer NSW) — with the wider ministry expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks as the full results of the state election are confirmed.

Mr Minns, the member for Kogarah in Sydney’s south, explained his government would “govern for everybody.” 

Prior to his recent victory, the newly crowned NSW Premier campaign included several housing-related promises. 

Earlier this year, Mr Minns proposed his own iteration of the outgoing Liberal Party’s stamp duty reform, which eliminates stamp duty for first home buyers purchasing a property worth up to $800,000, while offering a concession rate for those obtaining a home valued between $800,000 and $1 million. 

He described the move as providing a “direct tax cut to 95 per cent of first-home buyers”. 

In addition to its stamp duty proposal, the NSW Labor Party has also proposed undertaking a $30 million pilot build-to-rent project on the state’s South Coast and establishing a Rental Commissioner to be an advocate and voice for renters by working closely with government, consumer affairs, stakeholders, and renters.

‘No grounds’ evictions will also come to an end in the state under Labor leadership. When enacted, it would see NSW following the lead set by the ACT earlier this month.   

The Minns-led party has also pledged to introduce Homes NSW, an agency billed as “driving the delivery of more housing options and managing social housing in order to tackle the state’s housing crisis.” 

Further housing-related policy promises from the incoming Labor party included:

-   Longer-term funding certainty for homelessness and housing support organisations and tenancy advocacy services dealing with the fallout from the housing crisis

-   Seeing all planning decisions will be made by the Minister for Planning

-   No new developments on dangerous floodplains

The NSW Labor Party has not yet made a statement on payroll tax, but the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) announced on Monday (27 March) that it had received confirmation from Revenue NSW that it would not commence any new audits connected to aggregators in regard to payroll tax.

MFAA chief executive Anja Pannek said: “We held constructive meetings prior to the election where we firmly and respectfully communicated our concern to Revenue NSW and all sides of Government that the application of payroll tax threatens broker businesses, the financial stability of our industry, and choice and competition for NSW borrowers. 

“In those meetings, we sought commitment from Labor, that should it form a new government, that it would suspend all activities against the broking sector in NSW by Revenue NSW, by way of a moratorium, until there is certainty for industry. 

“In those meetings and publicly, NSW Labor clearly committed to engaging with industry to look at ways to ensure payroll tax requirements are transparent and clear. 

“With the election campaign completed, we expect Premier-elect Minns and his Government to make good on those commitments. 

“As such, we expect that the resolution of this issue will be a priority on the new government’s agenda.” 

[Related: Broking industry ramps up payroll tax action]