Manor Castle Hill

SO IS THIS CHANGE GOOD NEWS FOR SELLERS IN 2021? As NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said when he announced the proposal, stamp duty is “one of the biggest financial barriers to home ownership”. But the sheer cost of stamp duty also makes it is one of the biggest obstacles for existing owners wanting to move house or buy an investment property. For example, on a home valued at $1.58 million (the median home price in Castle Hill), a buyer must currently pay $71,905 stamp duty. Step up to a $2.5 million home and a buyer needs to pay a whopping $122,505. Details of what the ongoing property tax would be are yet to be confirmed, but the announcement indicated it would likely work in a similar way to council rates. At this stage, it looks likely that someone who wanted to hold a property for a short period of time would be better off under an ongoing annual tax, rather than stamp duty. Given the lag between announcing this Budget plan and confirming the details of how the new system would work, the REINSW has suggested that it could have a short-term impact on the market, as buyers hold tight, to see if they’d save significant money under the proposed new system in late 2021.