Six solutions to cool the Sydney property market boom

The buyers' agent Richard Wakelin has suggested the potential policy levers could be pulled that could be used to temper the Sydney property boom.

1) The NSW government could hike stamp duty.

2) The NSW government could reduce first-home buyer grants to dampen demand.

3) The supply of new property could be improved through reducing infrastructure charges levied on developers.

4) Government could heavily tax land-bankers, adopting a solution used in recent times by the Chinese government.

5) Councils could reduce the red tape around planning and redeployment of vacant sites.

6) Macro prudential policy could also be tailored such that banks have to observe tighter lending rules in Sydney than elsewhere in the country.

"Of course, many of these actions would be unpopular in certain quarters and others would have undesirable consequences," Richard Wakelin told The Australian Financial Review.

"For instance, a lax planning regime would likely exacerbate an acute issue.

"Moreover, to work, these policy prescriptions would require an as-yet unseen degree of coordination between the various levels of Australian governments.

"That is clearly unlikely, particularly in the lead-up to a NSW state election.

"But this more holistic approach is perhaps something for the future," he suggested.

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