Mr BONSON - 2002-08-20
What benefits are there for people buying their home in this budget?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, in this first Labor budget, which is about delivering today and investing for the future, every Territorian purchasing a home where they are going to live will get a rebate on their stamp duty - every single Territorian. This is a wonderful initiative. In a place like the Territory, where we want people to stay, where we have low home ownerships, this is a wonderful initiative; a really targetted initiative to build our home ownership and support our real estate and construction industries. For a long time now, year after year, the threshold for stamp duty was $80 000. $80 000 did not relate to a house in the Territory. We have lifted that to $125 000. That means for a rebate, it takes it from $2096 through to $3640 for first home buyers.
This is an enormous attraction and increase, and we are saying: ‘We want you to buy your first home in the Territory’. Together with the $1500 for buying your principal place of residence – that means everyone gets that. The higher sum of $3640 is for those who are first home owners. These are the people we want to target, this is a strong equity issue from this Labor government. But for everyone buying a home, there will be a concession on that stamp duty. So if you are buying your first home, $3640; if you are buying your principal place of residence, $1500. Calculations show that 2500 Territory households will benefit each year from this. There is a 74% increase in being able to get a rebate on buying that home in the Territory.
In terms of extra assistance, it is $2.9m. I could not be prouder to stand here and talk about this initiative, which really starts looking at how we get people to buy their first home in the Territory and to say: ‘Well, I am going to make a commitment to live here but I would like to upgrade where I am living’. We will give assistance to move there. Put that together with an extra $3m for HomeStart, to a record $28m to help low and medium income earners to be able to buy, again, their first home, and this is a budget that delivers. It delivers for today, it delivers for next year, and it does certainly invest in our future.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, in this first Labor budget, which is about delivering today and investing for the future, every Territorian purchasing a home where they are going to live will get a rebate on their stamp duty - every single Territorian. This is a wonderful initiative. In a place like the Territory, where we want people to stay, where we have low home ownerships, this is a wonderful initiative; a really targetted initiative to build our home ownership and support our real estate and construction industries. For a long time now, year after year, the threshold for stamp duty was $80 000. $80 000 did not relate to a house in the Territory. We have lifted that to $125 000. That means for a rebate, it takes it from $2096 through to $3640 for first home buyers.
This is an enormous attraction and increase, and we are saying: ‘We want you to buy your first home in the Territory’. Together with the $1500 for buying your principal place of residence – that means everyone gets that. The higher sum of $3640 is for those who are first home owners. These are the people we want to target, this is a strong equity issue from this Labor government. But for everyone buying a home, there will be a concession on that stamp duty. So if you are buying your first home, $3640; if you are buying your principal place of residence, $1500. Calculations show that 2500 Territory households will benefit each year from this. There is a 74% increase in being able to get a rebate on buying that home in the Territory.
In terms of extra assistance, it is $2.9m. I could not be prouder to stand here and talk about this initiative, which really starts looking at how we get people to buy their first home in the Territory and to say: ‘Well, I am going to make a commitment to live here but I would like to upgrade where I am living’. We will give assistance to move there. Put that together with an extra $3m for HomeStart, to a record $28m to help low and medium income earners to be able to buy, again, their first home, and this is a budget that delivers. It delivers for today, it delivers for next year, and it does certainly invest in our future.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016