MPs urged to ignore fearmongering and pass Labor’s ‘long overdue’ negative gearing and CGT changes

Key points

• Australia’s peak community and housing groups have urged federal parliament to quickly pass Labor’s changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, saying the reforms would improve fairness for renters and young homebuyers.
• The government may introduce its negative gearing and CGT changes into parliament as soon as the coming sitting fortnight, with hopes of passing the legislation soon after with the support of the Greens.
• The changes include limiting new negative gearing to new-builds and grandfathering existing properties, and changing how CGT is calculated: both reforms were billed by Labor as ways to rebalance the housing market toward first home buyers instead of property investors.
• Maiy Azize, of housing advocacy group Everybody’s Home, said there was “no excuse for landlords to hike rents because of these changes”.
• “Existing landlords get to keep these tax perks.