‍Labor’s SMSF tax attack will make housing crisis worse

‍Labor’s SMSF tax attack will make housing crisis worse

Labor’s changes to self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) is dumb policy at the worst possible time.

Tomorrow morning in Canberra, I will host a SMSF Roundtable with leaders from across the housing industry - both developers and financiers - including from construction, real estate, project marketing, finance, non-bank lending, investment platforms and the SMSF sector.

SMSFs make up some 30 per cent of presales, required for construction funding to get housing projects off the ground. They are key to unlocking housing supply.

Kicking out SMSFs is the last thing we need during a housing supply crisis, while union backed super funds continue to get the tax breaks.

Early industry feedback on the SMSF changes suggest the Government has materially understated the impact on new housing supply. Industry has identified over 5,000 new dwelling sales that were made with lending in SMSFs under the existing settings, which would not be possible in future. And that is just the start.

I will be hearing more about industry concerns at the upcoming roundtable.

Under Labor, new home completions have slumped to an average of 170,000 a year, 30,000 fewer than under the Coalition. The $77 billion Budget tax grab will result in at least another 35,000 fewer dwellings. And kicking out the SMFSs is another kick to housing supply.

It’s more dumb policy and more vested interests from Labor, while Australians do not get the houses needed to fix our housing supply crisis.

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