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Australia's is toothless though, in that enforcement is minimal and so are the penalties. NZ's may be equally crap or it may be quite effective, but I haven't
by elyobo 9y ago
Australia's is toothless though, in that enforcement is minimal and so are the penalties. NZ's may be equally crap or it may be quite effective, but I haven't seen details on the above and so it's hard to compare the policies at this point. A policy like Thailand's, where those found to be buying against the rules have their property taken off them without compensation, would be ideal.
The next step would be to require that those that do not meet the rules sell up, which should put a bit of supply into the market and achieve some meaningful price movement.
Another good step would be to finally bring in a decent capital gains tax, ideally charged annually on paper profits at whatever your marginal tax rate is, and with no family home exemptions. Ironically taxing the family home would, in this case, actually make them more affordable by exerting further pressure to move speculators out of the market.
- charlesdm 9y ago> A policy like Thailand's, where those found to be buying against the rules have their property taken off them without compensation, would be ideal. You can't do that in an open, globally connected economy though. As great and beautiful as Thailand is, it is still for the most part a corrupt developing country. You want to hold Australia or NZ, which should be open for business and wants to attract global investment by better protecting investor rights, to a much higher standard.
- elyobo 9y agoI'm not proposing that we take on board the corruption, but of course you can have a law with appropriate penalties for violators of it in an open, globally connected country. We want people to invest; we don't want them to break our laws. Their rights (and the penalties that would apply to them) would be laid out under the law, so no problem at all.
- flukus 9y agoWe can't confiscate illegally obtained goods because we live in a open, globally connected economy?
- indemnity 9y agoWhy should breaking the law have only a token penalty?
- Tsagadai 9y agoAustralia's policy does not prevent people buying residential houses through trusts or corporations. Ultra-wealthy and money laundering buyers can walk around the law and often do. The only buyers stopped are those closer to median buyers (which for Sydney and Melbourne is around the 1 million dollar mark). Overall the policy is largely ineffective at even slowing price increases. Thailand and Australia are not comparable markets, sure foreign buyers want access to both markets but Thailand is a corrupt military junta and Australia has a mostly functional court system (but increasing levels of corruption at the top end).