Mr. Nalder questions the fairness of stamp duty rebates for WA vs. foreign purchasers of off-the-plan apartments. The Premier defends the policy, highlighting that foreign investors still pay more overall and benefit from WA's infrastructure.

AnsweredQoN 948Legislative Assembly
Asked
24 October 2019
Portfolio
Premier

QuestionView source ↗

STATE ECONOMY — STAMP DUTY REBATE
948. Mr D.C. NALDER to the Premier:
I refer to the Premier's announcement yesterday about
addressing the crisis in the housing sector.
Can he confirm that under his plan, a Western Australian
purchasing a $620 000 apartment off the plan will receive a rebate of just $17 000,
while a foreign purchaser of the same property will receive a rebate of $50 000?
If so, how is that fair?

AnswerView source ↗

I do not have the figures
in my head but I can confirm that under the changes, it is a 75 per cent
reduction in off-the-plan purchases in transfer duty and foreign
investor surcharge. A foreign investor will always pay significantly more.
Intellectually, the member for Bateman clearly does not get that. At every
single price point, a foreign investor will pay more.
It is interesting that the
member raised this because the member for Bateman said yesterday that the
foreign i nvestor surcharge should be abolished. One day he is saying
abolish it and the next day he is saying that we are being too generous to
foreign property speculators. As I outlined to the house yesterday, foreign
property speculators or investors get a significant benefit by investing in Western
Australia. They get the benefit of low sovereign risk and the benefit of all
the infrastructure provided by generations of Western Australia that support
whatever their investment is. Whether they buy a house, a multistorey property,
a unit or whatever it is, they get all the benefits of the roads, water and
electricity and everything else built by generations of Western Australians. We
think they should pay a premium or an additional amount of money for that. That
is our position. The member for Bateman said yesterday that he wanted to the
get rid of it. The Liberal Party's position is to get rid of the
surcharge on foreign property speculators. Our position is that they should pay
more. However, we are reducing the burden on everyone in multistorey
developments, but foreign property investors will always pay more.

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