The NSW Planning Minister, Rob Stokes, has blamed negative gearing tax breaks for worsening housing affordability in Sydney, and declared the supply of new dwellings alone will not make property affordable for those who need it.
The comments undermine the federal government's refusal to consider changing property taxes to improve affordability, as well as its attack on the Labor opposition for its proposed cuts to negative gearing.
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Negative gearing explained
You've heard the term bandied around on the election trail, but what actually is negative gearing?
"Why should you get a tax deduction on the ownership of a multimillion dollar holiday home that does nothing to improve supply where it's needed?" Dr Stokes will say in a speech on Friday.
"We should promote investment in the type of housing that is needed by the burgeoning populations in cities like Sydney," his speech says.
Negative gearing - where owners of investment properties receive tax breaks on their expenses - was one of the major issues in the July federal election.
The Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, ruled out changes to negative gearing during the election campaign, and argued "the reason housing is unaffordable ... is because of a restraint on supply". Mr Turnbull said Labor's planned restrictions on negative gearing would punish investors and hurt the property market.
The theme was picked up last month by Treasurer Scott Morrison who said state governments were not doing enough to increase the supply of new housing by restricting supply and providing inadequate infrastructure.
But Dr Stokes, who has a PhD in planning law, appeared to reject this argument.
"The federal government has recently implored the states to focus on increasing supply and focus on transit-oriented development," Dr Stokes' speech says.
"That's exactly what we're doing – with more homes than ever before.
"It is now time for the federal government to articulate how they will partner with the states in order to use the levers available to them to help more Australian families into stable and secure housing."
Dr Stokes' speech, titled "a 'just' city", says governments will fail unless they can demonstrate to communities that economic and urban growth can contribute to an improved quality of life.
"We should not be content to live in a society where it's easy for one person to reduce their taxable contribution to schools, hospitals and other critical government services – through generous federal tax exemptions and the ownership of multiple properties – while a generation of working Australians finds it increasingly difficult to buy one property to call home," Dr Stokes' speech, to be delivered at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia event, will say.
The NSW government is spending record levels on infrastructure, while there are predictions of the largest ever increase in housing supply in Sydney.
Nevertheless Dr Stokes said those new dwellings, while important, could not alone improve affordability in Sydney.
"The premise that the more you supply of a product, it therefore increases the competition and reduces prices, is great in theory but in relation to the housing market it is much more complex," he says.
"It's a major concern to me as planning minister of the most populous state, but also as a dad to three young children, of increasing reports that without parental support the dream of home ownership is becoming harder and harder to obtain."
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