New Housing Incentive Package

25th May, 2017

Peter Gutwein, Treasurer

Guy Barnett, Minister for Building and Construction

The Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to making housing more affordable for Tasmanians.

We are already rolling out a nation-leading $73.5 million Affordable Housing Action Plan that is delivering on our commitment to build over 900 new homes and affordable housing options for 1600 Tasmanian households in need.

But we know that more needs to be done, especially to help people enter the housing market.

That’s why the 2017-18 Budget contains a New Housing Incentive Package, which will make it easier for Tasmanians to build new housing.

The Package has five key features:

We are making it easier for Tasmanians to build their first home by extending the $20,000 First Home Builders Grant for another 12 months.
Stamp duty will only have to be paid on the value of land for eligible house and land packages, providing stamp duty relief of around $7500 on the average cost of a standard “off the plan” house and land purchase. This measure will be backdated to 14 May, the day this measure was first announced.
Simplifying supply side levers such as planning rules and building regulations cuts red tape and makes it easier to build a home and increase housing stock, so this Budget allocates $300,000 to assist councils to finalise their local planning rules so they can become a part of the Statewide planning scheme at the earliest opportunity.
To complement our nation-leading planning and building reforms this Budget invests $1.9 million into iPlan, a one stop online shop for building and planning approvals.
Finally, the Government can make housing more affordable by increasing the supply of land available for development.

Various Government departments and Government businesses have significant land holdings and we have tasked Treasury with conducting a review to determine 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 the broader housing market.

An Affordable Housing Working Group will also be established to be jointly led by Housing Tasmania and Treasury. Membership will include Non-Government Organisations that support vulnerable Tasmanians, as well as those organisations that represent the home building and construction sector. This will ensure we get the maximum community benefit from any land identified as part of the audit.

It is expected that this review will be completed later this year.

Through this process, the Government wants to help make the dream of owning your own home a reality for more Tasmanians.