Our signature policy is to increase the holding cost of owning a second property in New South Wales. We propose two things that will make owning a second home significantly less financially viable for investors, thereby decreasing demand whilst freeing up more homes for owner occupiers. Firstly, we will double the current rate of land tax. Note that land tax is generally not applied on owner occupied homes, so if you only own one property (or are yet to buy), taxing you more is not the answer. On the other hand, investment properties (and holiday houses) are only subject to land tax if the value of land holdings in NSW exceeds $1,075,000. Even then it is only 1.65% annually (and only on the amount over the threshold). This generous treatment of investors still raises $8.2 billion per year in New South Wales, but all else being equal we will double that number, at least initially until land values decrease due to the success of this policy. Secondly, we will reduce the overly generous threshold to bring it in line with Victoria where variable land tax kicks in not at $1,075,000, but at a land value of $300,000. This will bring a lot of previously "pay nothing" investors into the land tax net, as well as impacting existing land tax payers to make them pay more tax via a lower threshold. This second change will raise billions more in state revenue in the first year, whilst putting significant downward pressure on house prices as investors decide to sell out, enabling more owner occupiers to buy. The days of being outbid by an investor for a freestanding established house will largely be a thing of the past. An auction where the only registered bidders are prospective owner occupiers - wouldn't that be a nice change from the situation today. When people invest in any asset they do so knowing that their investment contains risk and that it may lose value. The problem with housing investment is that it has been virtually risk free and too easy to make money over the past 50 years. Property investors will realise that housing is no different to any other investment - what goes up can also come down. There will always be a need for private investors to own some homes for the private rental market, so our policy is to maintain the current regime of land tax for investors buying off the plan or building new homes, with the condition that those homes must be rented by a long term tenant on a minimum initial 12 month lease and not used as a holiday home or short term holiday rental accommodation. Investors that buy homes on this basis will get a 10 year exemption from the new land tax tax regime, and will pay land tax based upon the existing scales. This will ensure a steady stream of brand new good quality houses and apartments entering the rental market as investors invest in the lower taxed option. This policy aside,, there are still many good apartments in new buildings in this state with an assessable land tax value of under $300,000. Assuming the investor only owns this one investment property, it will remain free from land tax under our policies, even if it an established dwelling and not purchased off the plan, thereby further ensuring a good number of rental properties. Property investors have benefitted for too long at the expense of hard working aspirational young people. From 13 March 2027 (the next NSW state election), those days are coming to a close.

In Sydney, the median home price has increased from $34,000 in 1975 to $1,627,625 in 2025. But even worse than that, the price-to-income ratio during that period has nearly quadrupled. That means house prices have risen at four times the rate that wages have grown, and what that really means is that younger working people have had to take out bigger and bigger mortgages to live in a less desirable home than the one they grew up in. Something is very clearly broken, and both major parties over the past 50 years have had a hand in this failure, at federal and state level. House Prices Must Halve is a very different political party; we are 100% focussed on house prices falling. You won't hear Liberal, Labor or The Greens talk about actively working towards a goal of massive price reductions, instead they'll use weasel words like "increasing supply" which just means forcing you to live in tiny apartments in over crowded suburbs and getting to the end of your working life with a huge mortgage still to pay off, probably losing all of your superannuation trying to wipe out that mortgage when you retire. The answer is not really about increasing supply, it is about decreasing demand and driving house prices lower, much lower. The status quo might be great for people inheriting a lot of money, or for those rich enough to be gifted a property by parents, but for everyone else it is a completely unacceptable and untenable situation. One way in which governments should be measured is by the percentage of people living in owner occupied homes. This number has dropped from 73% to 60% in the past 50 years. Another example of government policy actually working against the interest of voters. Renting is great if you want flexibility at that point in your life, but not when it is forced upon you by government policy that locks you out of the long term security that comes from owning a home. With your support in New South Wales, we will force the government to adopt this measure and report on it annually. We cannot allow this to go backwards for any longer. Property investors have benefitted for too long at the expense of hard working aspirational young people, but from March 2027 (the next NSW state election), those days are coming to a close.

Recent data published in the Financial Times from a Gallup World Poll shows just how bad the situation really is. People aged 15 - 29 from 30 different counties were asked if they were "dissatisfied with good, affordable city housing." Australia was the worst of all 30 countries with 77.8% of young people saying yes, they were dissatisfied with good affordable city housing. Can you believe it? Young Australians were more disillusioned than their peers in USA, UK, Canada, New Zealand and even Greece, Japan, Italy and Germany plus many more. Leaving an entire generation convinced that the system is working against them is utterly unacceptable. This is a complete failure by successive governments and it cannot be ignored any longer. Whilst other parties make election promises funded by debt, which really just means that young people get done over again by paying taxes later in life to fund the promises of yesteryear, we will be proposing a Parliamentary Inquiry with two key objectives. How to spend the billions in extra land tax collected from investors to benefit first home buyers and renters. How to utilise other measures available to the State of New South Wales to further reduce demand for existing houses in order to drive prices even lower. Maybe the reason none of this has happened is because so many politicians own investment properties. Or maybe they just thought the votes of older people who already own multiple properties were more important than younger people wanting to buy somewhere to live. Whatever caused this, it is completely unacceptable and we will be working our hardest to turn this around by reducing demand and therefore reducing the entry price for people in New South Wales wanting to own their own home. We need to restore faith in the system, especially for people casting a vote in their first, second or third state election. The system can be made to work for first time owner occupiers, just like it did in the past, but not if we continue following the disastrous policies of the existing political class.