John Symond says scrap millionaires' negative gearing
The Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond doesn't think investors in the luxury home market should enjoy the benefits of negative gearing.
Entering the tax white paper discussion, John Symond said negative gearing should be capped.
“The intention of negative gearing when it was introduced was not to facilitate a $10 million- $20 million house to rent out, get a 2% yield and write the rest off on negative gearing,” Symond told The Australian.
“It needs tweaking on capping the benefits.”
But he warned that scrapping the tax break in the broader market would affect housing supply.
“The downside with messing with negative gearing is that it would stifle investor appetite and there would be an even bigger problem in the supply of housing," Symond said.
"The lack of an orderly supply strategy for housing has brought on price increases in cities like Sydney.”
The Treasury white paper suggested that negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions were probably inflating house prices.
It found that taxes on property – stamp duty and land tax – contribute 9% net of the total tax base which is far more than the OECD average of around 5%.
Investment property was described by the paper as the Australia's third most popular savings.
The paper indcated a preference for removing stamp duty.