Stamp Duty Reform Abolishing stamp duty would immediately help more people buy property, according to new research.
Analysis by e61 Institute and PropTrack shows that increasing the rate of stamp duty by just one percentage point reduces the number of homes sold by more than 7%.
It says if a state such as NSW abolished stamp duty entirely, an extra 100,000 people would be able to buy every year.
The report says stamp duty doesn’t just affect the property market. It blames stamp duty for making it difficult or too expensive for people to change jobs if it involves moving to a new location.
“Job mobility has slowed over the past couple of decades, which has weighed on productivity and coincides with a surge in the cost of stamp duty,” it says.
“Meanwhile, older households – many of whom have numerous spare bedrooms – are discouraged from downsizing.
“Discouraging people from moving has all sorts of damaging flow-on effects, and these problems are becoming increasingly acute because the impost of stamp duty has grown considerably relative to previous generations,” it says.
