WA news LIVE: Labor’s stamp duty announcement; South West residents told too late to flee bushfire emergency
Premier Roger Cook has made an election announcement today that looks to be one of Labor’s central announcements, and in line with this week’s political theme of housing, it is a promise to increase the stamp duty exemption and discount for first home buyers.
Under the $130 million pledge Labor would increase the exemption applied on established home purchases for first-home buyers from $450,000 to $500,000 and lift the discounted-rate thresholds from $600,000 to $700,000 in Perth and $750,000 in regional WA.
Stamp duty savings under Labor. Credit: WA Labor
Cook said the policy means a first homebuyer would save nearly $18,000 when purchasing a $500,000 property.
An exemption for land purchases will also be increased from $300,000 to $350,000 and the exemption on apartment purchases from $100,000 to $750,000.
Cook said a combined 22,000 first-home buyers would benefit from the changes over the next four years, with up to 8000 paying no stamp duty.
The announcement doesn’t match the Liberals’ promise to raise the stamp duty exemption thresholds from $450,000 to $550,000 and raise the concession threshold from $600,000 to $700,000.
Since the pandemic, median house price in Perth has soared from $480,000 in 2020 to $750,000 this year.
At today’s press conference, Treasurer Rita Saffioti was peppered with questions about why Labor hasn’t promised to raise the exemption threshold further to reflect this extraordinary growth.
Saffioti replied that housing affordability was a major focus.
“There’s never ever been one solution to helping West Australians get into their homes. It’s been a whole suite of initiatives,” she said.
Master Builders Australia WA chief executive Matthew Pollock said each party got a big tick for addressing stamp duty.
“But they’ve all also missed the opportunity for greater reforms that could have given even greater support for aspiring West Australians looking to buy a home,” he said.
“Stamp duty is a bad tax. Cutting it further would make WA’s nation leading economy even stronger and put us in a leading position to attract the type of talent we need to support growth.”
