Government’s sweeping decision to allow for more housing densification prompts renewed calls from councils for more infrastructure funding.

Councils should get the GST taken from the sale of new housing in their region.

When a new townhouse sells in Hamilton for $700,000 the government gets about $90,000 of GST revenue. Yes first home buyers, $90,000 of that mortgage you’ve just taken on is to pay for tax.

If that $90,000 was paid to the council, or even half of it, councils infrastructure funding issues would disappear.

Why should all of that GST revenue go to Wellington? Why should GST taken from Hamilton housing be spent on the design of a bridge nobody wanted? $51,000,000 was spent on the Auckland Harbour bridge cycle project (https://bit.ly/30KniTI) all for nothing. That $51m would have paid for a lot of new sewer, water and stormwater infrastructure in Hamilton.

And that is just one small example.

If councils benefited from new development through an increase in revenue from GST then they would start to work with developers, they might even promote development. Imagine if councils competed with each other for business by providing better services, faster consents etc.

We should stop sending our hard earned money to Wellington where it’s wasted on stupid policies and giveaways to buy votes. Let’s keep our money local and grow our city, our region and make a better place to live.

John Kenel
Assured Property

Source: Interest.co.nz

#assuredproperty #housing #rentals #propertyinvestment