REINSW President Urges New South Wales Government To Cut Stamp Duty Tax

A cut of only 0.5 per cent to the New South Wales transfer stamp duty rates would increase the property market and potentially boost state revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Real Estate Institute of New South Wales president Christian Payne.

In a statement released today (May 16), Mr Payne urged the NSW government to reduce the transfer stamp duty tax for their upcoming budget - saying that past tax cuts have shown significant increases to government income.

"What NSW craves is decisive action by the state government to motivate the market. When property transfer taxes are too high, state revenue suffers," he said.

"The abominated 2.25 per cent NSW vendor duty resulted in a loss of over $1 billion transfer duty revenue in the only full year it was in operation."

He cites the Australian Capital Territory's decision last year to cut the transfer duty by 0.75 per cent from property for sale and their income this year from that decision - almost $28 million.

"The evidence is clear that cutting property transfer duty rates incentivises and stimulates the market which produces revenue streams for the state government," he said.

"NSW needs to take innovative action by cutting transfer stamp duty rates now, to increase state revenue."