Half Of Property Industry To Shed Drops If Negative Gearing Changes Implemented

The Urban Development Institute of Australia’s (UDIA) Property Industry Forecast Survey of 200 of the key property industry business leaders shows why the risks to industry of changing negative gearing and capital gains tax policy are too great to risk.

These are the views of the leading property industry business leaders who are responsible for hiring staff and for building new developments.

More than 50% of respondents said it was likely they would reduce their number of employees as well as the production of new dwellings.

The Survey results shows unacceptable levels of uncertainty from the property sector, proving the risks of change are too great.

"We are seven weeks into the election campaign and are yet to see any substantive evidence on the impacts of changes to negative gearing,” UDIA National President, Michael Corcoran said.

“The people that know the impacts are the industry and they have said definitively that there is too much at risk to change."UDIA believes changes to negative gearing will damage the health of our property markets, and the survey demonstrates industry leaders are concerned that it will hamstring their capacity to grow and hire staff.

More than half of the respondents were concerned that house prices would decrease, but there was considerable uncertainty about what the impact of changes would be. One of those impacts is that a resounding 72% of respondents said they thought rents would increase as a result of the changes.