In 2025 the homeless and tax issues are at the forefront of everyone’s mind. There are many ideas being put forward to help but are they good for us?

The “ lazy place tax” suggested in NSW wherein investors with vacant commercial property will be taxed if they leave their properties vacant.  Or they can obtain tax advantages by leasing their properties to the “creatives” to attempt to revitalise commercial areas with creative “pop up“ businesses. This school of thought will probably struggle, as for this to work there would need to be a significant drop in the current asking rent to attract these “creatives “ and with a lower return comes a lower valuation.

There has been a lot of discussion about taxing your primary residence with references to “imputed rent”. This is not a new idea and is common in various countries around the world. There is a school of thought that home owners have an unfair advantage over the rest of the population.

However as these various schemes are kicked around,  the real estate market is still powering along with noticeable growth in a number of states. It is interesting to note a swing away from the high end of the market to first home buyer territory, probably because of the latest interest rate reduction. 
This has been evident in sales data from suburbs away from the city and regional centres where prices are lower and property is more obtainable for first home buyers. This is evident in our own market and interestingly enough the return of interstate investors also keen to buy in these lower price brackets.