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Property industry veteran Tom Panos said changing tax settings would not address affordability issues. Picture: Alison Wynd

A battle has erupted over the future of Australia’s property market, with one industry insider warning a proposed overhaul of tax discounts could be catastrophic for vulnerable tenants.

In a clash on Sunrise, prominent real estate auctioneer and property trainer Tom Panos sounded the alarm about proposed changes to capital gains tax discounts.

The current tax setting allow investors who have owned their assets for longer than a year to get a discount on the amount of capital gains tax incurred. The tax is currently in the spotlight after calls by Labor backers the Australian Council of Trade Unions for reform.

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Hot Auction in Lane Cove

Investors often compete with first-home buyers at auction, but capital gains tax discounts only come into play once the investors sell. Picture: Tom Parrish

Mr Panos said removing tax incentives for investors would fail to fix the housing crisis and instead choke rental supply. The result would be tenants paying skyrocketing costs.

Tampering with the CGT discount, far from levelling the playing field between first-home buyers and investors, would be a dangerous gamble, Mr Panos said

“If you’re going to take away attractiveness for people to invest in property, you’re going to take investment property out of the picture,” Mr Panos told Sunrise.

“Less rental properties means more demand by tenants, which means higher rents.”

Mr Panos said the victims of this policy shift would not be the wealthy, but “the most vulnerable cohort of people in society. And that is the tenants”.

The debate intensified as Greens Senator Nick McKim labelled the current CGT discount an “unfair” tax break that costs the budget billions a year and benefits mostly wealth Australians.

QUESTION TIME

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s union backers have called for changers to CGT.. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Mr McKim said it was unjust for workers like nurses to pay more tax than someone who “sits around at home flipping investment properties”, but did not clarify how current tax settings allow for this.

This claim was rubbished by Mr Panos who said investors had been stereotyped as tycoons driving luxury cars when in reality most were middle-income families preparing for retirement.

“We’re not talking about people like Adrian Portelli running around in a Maserati with lots of properties,” Ms Panos fired back.

“We’re talking about mums and dads that have chosen investment property as financial security for their children.”

Mr Panos said 75 per cent of investors owned only one property, citing his own experience selling homes to nurses and school teachers attempting to diversify their nest eggs.

Beyond the tax debate, Mr Panos argued the government was pulling the wrong levers.

He criticised “mucking around with taxes” or introducing 5 per cent deposit schemes, claiming they only pushed prices higher without addressing the root cause of unaffordable prices: a lack of supply.

The auctioneer called for a “wider discussion” that looks at reducing red tape, rezoning and migration.

He suggested policymakers consider “having migration going in at the same rate as properties being built, because that is another issue that we’re facing”.

Without addressing supply, changing the tax code was merely a superficial fix for a deep-rooted structural problem, Mr Panos added.

GREENS PRESSER

Senator Nick McKim said the tax discounts were unfair. Picture: Martin Ollman

Senator McKim pushed back on the fears of a rental impacts. He argued that if tax breaks for speculators were reined in, more investors would sell. Renters would then have more stock to buy.

“That would level the playing field,” McKim insisted, adding that it would reduce buyer competition.

This claim was challenged by Sunrise host Natalie Barr who suggested many investors may hold onto their properties for much longer if they had to pay more capital gains tax after a sale.

Mr Panos said Australia already had one of the highest rates of capital gains tax even with the current discounts in place.

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