You see exactly the same kind of stuff endlessly parroted in the US by people who somehow think that confiscating property from all landlords will make the millions [1] of needed housing units just manifest out of thin air.
[1]: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/08/homes/housing-shortage/index....
And the ALP government is adding 1.5 million people to the demand side of the equation.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/negative-gearing-cos...
Tax concessions for housing investors to cost $20bn a year within a decade, analysis shows.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/03/tax-c...
The Australian government should be spending $20BN a year building public housing, not giving money to property investors.
I rather the gov't give back the tax dollars in that case. And nothing stops an investor from making a company, and using that mechanism to negatively gear - unless somehow the proposal specifically targeted real estate.
People in australia complain about high property prices often think it's negative gearing causing it - but it's not. Australia is full of rich people, and high income earners. That's why property prices are high.
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/analysis/brief/are-there-1-million-...
The 2021 Census reveals that 10.1 per cent (1,043,776 homes) of Australia’s 10,318,997 private dwellings were unoccupied on the night of the Census. While this may seem that a very large proportion of Australia’s housing is unlived in, the reality is dwellings are identified as unoccupied for a number of reasons such as:
homes are being renovated
homes being sold as vacant possession
newly built or bought homes where no one has moved in yet
rental homes awaiting new tenants
people living away temporarily from home during the census count (travelling or visiting other homes)
homes are deemed unliveable
subject to a probate application or other legal proceedings
holiday homes
homes owned by people currently living overseas
homes being land banked, that is held vacant until the local area economics (or personal circumstances) make it more profitable to sell or redevelop the property.
IIRC it's actually quite difficult for foreign buyers to get into the market, and expensive as well.
The housing vacancy rate is lower than ever. There definitely aren't millions of empty houses.
Largely the issue is just going to be too many people and not enough houses where they are needed. The more liberal we are with permitting apartment and unit construction, the better things will be in the long term. I'm not sure restricting migration is the solution - but you can definitely argue that the rate is too high.