PROPERTY owners will be hit with higher land tax bills thanks to rises in official valuations on top of a new higher tax rate.
I don't have a huge problem with this, unless it feeds into higher rents - landlords will pass on land tax increases to tenants, although with a $330 000 threshold, the landlord would need to own multiple properties or expensive properties for it to bite. However, in an essentially free property market, there is nothing stopping landlords from passing it on as a 'fair increase' in rent.
What really annoys me is that the State Government has the resources to value every single property in the state and levy such taxes, but does nothing about controlling housing prices to benefit the community — as per the OECD report published recently (immediately below) demonstrating houses are overvalued by around 50% across Australia.
