This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Tasmanian government will extend the $20,000 first home owners grant for another 12 months.
The FHOG extension is one of five measures contained within the New Housing Incentive Package (NHIP) unveiled by Treasurer Peter Gutwein in the latest state budget.
The second measure will see stamp duty only be paid on the value of the land for eligible house and land packages, saving Tasmanians around $7,500 on the average cost of a standard ‘off the plan’ house and land purchase.
In the third measure, the government will allocate $300,000 to assist councils to reduce planning red tape.
The government will also invest $1.9 million over three years to modernise iPlan, to turn it into the state’s ‘one stop’ building and planning portal.
And finally, the government will launch a review across its agencies and government businesses to explore the potential to unlock significant land holdings.
Gutwein said Treasury will be tasked with conducting a broad scale review across the whole‑of‑government to assess what land may be suitable for repurposing for housing to increase the availability of supply to either support the Government’s Housing Affordability Strategy or to increase supply into the broader housing market.
He stressed that it is not about privatising government land.
“I want to stress this process is not about any sort of wholesale privatisation of government land, it is wholly aimed at identifying underutilised government-owned land that could be made available for housing.”
The government will also establish an Affordable Housing Working Group to identifying properties suitable for renewal and repurposing to increase affordable housing supply.
Australian Property Journal
