20 hours ago.
Updated 19 hours ago
The Australian Business Network
Rasti Vaibhav, a former property executive with AMP and Westpac, who now runs the Get RARE Buyer’s agency, said the government’s decision to grandfather negative gearing has inadvertently created a ring-fenced segment of investors who can carry the rights to negatively gear their properties into the distant future since there is no termination date for the arrangements.
“The Treasurer just transferred tens of billions of dollars in latent tax value to existing owners,” Mr Vaibhav said.
He estimates the present value of the negative gearing privileges across the market is worth at least $27bn. He said negative gearing was worth about $18,000 per negatively geared property interest registered with the Australian Taxation Office.
Grandfathering negative gearing means existing owners of negatively geared established property held on budget night, May 12, can continue to do so.
Negatively geared property investors can claim losses relating to an investment property as a tax deduction.
“Selling your property would mean losing this protection forever,” Mr Vaibhav said. “My recommendation is don’t sell … unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Negative gearing will not be allowed on established properties bought after July 1, 2027. Only new properties will be eligible under the new rules. But the vast majority of negative gearing is currently held on established homes.
The negative gearing of new homes, largely situated in outer suburbs, is regarded as a less lucrative investment option. New properties in the metropolitan districts are mostly apartments.
“Treasury’s own assumption that half of negatively geared properties turn over within four to five years is now obsolete,” Mr Vaibhav said.
ProSolution Private Office founder Stuart Wemyss has always worked on the basis that a residential investment property has an internal rate of return of 11 per cent for the average investor. The internal rate of return is a measure of the ongoing profitability of a property.
He said that calculation was no longer feasible, and the combination of a higher CGT tax along with the absence of negative gearing on existing properties brings that number down to 8.4 per cent.
“You have to ask to what extent the tax benefits that are unique to that first owner will be reflected in the capital value of that asset,” he said.
For would-be property investors standing on the sidelines, the looming change to negative gearing also throws up some curious outcomes.
Investors can go out and invest in residential investment property at any time before the new rules come into play on July 1, 2027, but since they were not existing owners on May 12, this group will not have their tax privileges extended.
Mr Wemyss said the upside for existing investors will quickly become a downside for later investors when the rules restricting negative gearing to new properties are fully introduced.
“The problem for the investor negatively gearing a new property is that when they go to sell, the next buyer, of course, won’t get those benefits because it has become an established property – there are a lot of risks here.”
Getting a property financed under current conditions could also be challenging.
Interest rates are rising, house prices are softening in Sydney and Melbourne and investors are still seeking clarity on many aspects of the budget changes.
Moreover, banks have already said they are reviewing the terms of loans where the underlying investment plan is anchored by negative gearing tax concessions.
There are also suggestions that under the terms of the negative gearing plan outlined by the government, where all properties owned before the new rules commence will still be allowable for negative gearing purposes, it would be possible for any homeowner to later move to a new primary residence and negatively gear the still-owned former home as an investment property.
“Unless they change that in the final legislation, that’s my reading of it,” Mr Wemyss said.