Prosper Australia commissioned Dr Cameron Murray to examine the early benefits of ACT’s 20 year process replacing conveyancing stamp duty with land tax. This report outlines the findings.

Main findings:

• Increasing land tax rates appears to have deterred housing speculation
• Future land tax obligations are already capitalised into lower land prices
• Because of this, new home buyers save between $1000 and $2000 per year on mortgage costs
• New housing construction has remained strong during the tax transition period
• Residential rental growth is at historical lows, benefiting renting households
• The distribution of land tax obligations between different types of land holders is the main political sensitivity