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Antonia Mercorella has offered her congratulations to the state government for its shelving of the controversial tax.
The Real Estate Institute of Queensland’s (REIQ) chief executive said that the Palaszczuk government’s decision to drop the tax is necessary at a time when investor confidence is needed to help the state quash its vacancy rates, currently the tightest in history.
“Abandoning the contentious land tax regime will bring confidence back to the property investor market at a time of great uncertainty,” she said.
Ms Mercorella touched on the institute’s staunch rejection of the tax, which dates back to December 2021 when she brandished it as a “slap in the face” that treated property investors as “an endless money pit”, through to earlier this month when she called for the tax to be repealed, citing the fact that the bill was “as unique as it is illogical”.
In a statement following reports this morning that the Queensland Premier had made the decision to shelve the tax, Ms Mercorella said the government’s original decision would have sent shockwaves through the private housing investment sector, labelling that earlier decision as “unprecedented and illogical” in a rental crisis.
“The land tax changes would have also potentially impacted commercial property investment and national employers with Queensland domiciled premises,” she said.
She professed the institute’s appreciation of the government’s decision to place the tax on ice, adding that the REIQ “look[s] forward to working with them at the Housing Summit in October to address the state’s housing supply issues”.
The Property Council’s Queensland executive director Jen Williams also celebrated the government’s decision to stall the “untenable” legislation.
“The complexity of the tax and its reliance on the self-disclosure of individuals and data-sharing of other states reinforces this plan should be completely scrapped, and not just put on the shelf until a future day,” Ms Williams said.
“Over the past few weeks, we have seen the Queensland government take swift and decisive action to address the state’s housing crisis, with the shelving of this tax now added to the list.”
Ms Williams concluded that “walking back from this tax sends an important signal that the government is listening and is willing to take on board the feedback of the industry”.
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