Stamp duty revenue hasn't fallen off a cliff, despite slow NSW sales volumes

Stamp duty revenue hasn't fallen off a cliff, despite slow NSW sales volumes
Jonathan ChancellorAugust 29, 2011

NSW Treasurer Mike Baird has been suggesting NSW faced a state budget crisis given falling revenues.

But the state’s stamp duty revenue hasn’t completely fallen off the cliff.

Indeed, the latest Office of State Revenue data actually reveals the overall annual transfer duty tally has gone up despite fewer house, unit, commercial and land sales.

There was $3.53 billion in stamp duty paid in the last financial year by 161,000 purchasers.

In the 2009-10 financial year 189,000 purchasers paid a slightly lower $3.51 billion in stamp duty.

Stamp duties typically represent about 20% of total state revenue.

Perhaps what has concerned Baird is that the July sales volumes were the slowest in recent years, with just 12,937 property transactions.

It was the slowest sales tally for the six years that figures are available. Buyers paid $292 million in stamp duty last month, down only slightly on the $303 million paid in July 2010.

There were 15,084 sales in July 2010, with the peak years in recent times being 18,040 in July 2009 and 18,070 sales in July 2007.

The latest monthly revenue does sit well below the $375 million paid in July 2007, but we have all had to get use to a tighter rein on income and expenditure following the global financial crisis.

The figures provide an uncertain backdrop to next week’s first O’Farrell government state budget.

The incoming state government delayed the typical May budget following its March election.

Baird presumably now has a clearer view of the so-called black hole he inherited from Eric Roozendaal, the former Labor government treasurer, and the future of his spending initiatives.

It is understood that the NSW financial position has deteriorated by hundreds of millions of dollars since April, with receipts from GST payments and payroll tax having collapsed since the budget position was last published shortly after the March election.

"The budget is under increasing pressure, as all government budgets are with the drop in revenues," Baird told the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this week. It noted stamp duties have been hardest hit.

"Recent global events will hurt our budget, just as they are hurting every budget. And it's not a small amount. It's not in the tens of millions; we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars."

Baird and the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, have warned of a "tough" budget, due next Tuesday.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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