Page 2321 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013
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Today we have announced a further measure to provide more affordable housing in the territory. I was pleased to join the Minister for Economic Development, Andrew Barr, alongside Mary Porter and Yvette Berry, to announce a new housing development for west Belconnen. The development is a partnership between the government and locally owned land development company, the Riverview Group. It will result in the construction of around 4,500 homes accommodating 12,000 people over the next decade.
The need for additional retail and community services generated by families and singles living in this new development will also lead to enhancements to the Kippax group centre as a community, shopping and public transport hub. This will also be of benefit to the wider west Belconnen area. Existing schools such as Macgregor primary and Kingsford Smith will take students who are living the new development and, as the estate grows, new schools will be constructed. It goes without saying that this project will transform Belconnen. It will bring thousands more residents, more shops, more schools and more people to local sporting teams and community groups. It will also be a great place to live—close to the Belconnen town centre and close to the Molonglo River.
Mr Assistant Speaker, with the release of the 2013-14 budget, we are continuing our commitment to affordability, with further reductions in stamp duty, an increase to the first home owner grant and an expansion of the homebuyer concession scheme to cover more homebuyers and properties. On 5 June 2013 the second reduction in stamp duty rates took effect as part of our plan to completely phase out the tax. These changes will further reduce the amount of stamp duty payable for residential and commercial properties. Compared with the stamp duty rates before our tax reform, someone buying a home valued at $300,000 will now pay $1,400 less in stamp duty. Similarly, someone buying a home valued at $500,000 will pay $3,400 less than before our tax reforms.
Under these changes the ACT will also go from having the highest rate of stamp duty in the country to one that is much more competitive with the rest of Australia. Indeed, over time the ACT will be the only jurisdiction to completely abolish conveyancing duty. Whilst all homebuyers will benefit from our plan to phase out stamp duty, low and moderate income households will benefit even more through changes to the homebuyer concession scheme.
The scheme, which provides additional discounts on stamp duty for new homes, was expanded in 2012-13 and is expanded even further again in the 2013-14 budget. The scheme’s household income threshold is being increased by $10,000 to $160,000 to ensure that more people are able to take advantage of the concession.
Similarly, the value of thresholds which determine which properties are eligible for the reduced duty are also being increased. A full concession will now be available for properties up to a value of $425,000, an increase of $45,000 over the previous threshold. The threshold for partial concessions will also increase from $450,000 to $525,000. This affectively means that a family with an annual income of $160,000 buying a new home for $425,000 will pay a mere $20 in conveyancing duty.
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