Queensland government vows to cut real estate red tape and reinstate stamp duty concessions

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has vowed to reduce real estate red tape by scrapping the controversial sustainability declaration forms as well as reinstating state stamp duty concessions.

Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney says it will be the Queensland government’s first legislative move when Parliament resumes in mid-May.

The mandatory forms were introduced in 2010 as a way for buyers to determine green credentials but were criticised by the real estate industry as an inefficient inconvenience in an already difficult market.

Seeney says the bureaucratic forms added little benefit to buyers.

"It was just about feel-good green preferences rather than any sort of outcome at all,'' he told The Courier Mail.

Originally proposed in 2008, the sustainability declarations were pitched as a way for buyers to compare the energy efficiency credentials of competing properties.

With fines of up to $2,000 for sellers who failed to complete the forms, the former Bligh government was forced to drop some of the more confusing questions after an outcry from sellers and the real estate industry.

The initial two-page form asked sellers to detail items including the star rating of appliances and the width of hallways before the property could go to market.

Many questions were later dropped, including one that asked sellers to detail "at least one entry from outside to inside the dwelling is provided by either a level entrance, no more than three steps, a ramp or a lift''.

Despite these revisions the document continued to attract criticism over questions including asking about the number of east- and west-facing windows, the colour of the roof and the star rating of toilets.

Seeney says helping the property sector will aid the recovery of the Queensland economy.

He says more efficient decision-making would also help the sluggish industry.

"What the industry wants is timely decisions.”

"If it is 'yes' let them get on with it, and if it is a `no' then let them know so they can get on with something else.''

The government will also reintroduce stamp duty concessions.

"Cabinet also formally approved the reinstatement of the principal place of residence stamp duty concession from 1 July 2012, which will save Queenslanders up to $7,000 when they purchase an average family home,'' Newman says.

The concession was dropped in June 2011 by then Queensland treasurer Andrew Fraser in a bid to raise an estimated $161 million for the state government.