More fake news about property investors.  Rather surprising coming from a well know commentator Bernard Hickey.

Why is he saying that property investors pay less tax than other business owners when the opposite is true?

We all know that property investors have to pay income tax on any gain they make on a property if they sell within 5 years, yet you don’t pay a cent in tax if you sell a bussines for a profit the next day or shares in public companies or farms.

The fact is property investors already have a capital gains tax if they sell within 5 years – no other business owners in NZ pay capital gains tax.

Property investors pay tax on the rent they receive at their highest income tax rate, like any other business owners. Yes, property investors can claim interest expenses, of course, like any other business. So where is the benefit Bernard is talking about?

He talks about the accommodation supplement. This is paid to home owners and people renting, so quoting the entire figure as he has done in this article and not splitting it between tenants and home owners is simply misleading.

Maybe he knows the article is untrue and he’s just priming the public for more ridiculous anti-landlords rules to come from government – the people who are actually causing house prices to rise. House price are rising is because they dropped interest rates to record lows while there was a shortage of housing.

To make matters worse, Jacinda’s government has been actively trying to disincentivise investment in rental property without giving tenants another option, thus the exploding emergency housing waiting lists and rising rents.

The only thing that’s going to slow down house price growth is more supply, and as a developer I can’t see anything about development that’s getting easier. In fact, every development I start takes longer and costs more. More consultants required, more delays from council, more costs. It gets harder and harder every year.

So stop trying to blame property investors for house prices rising, it’s simply not true.

What is true, is that house prices and rents will keep rising.

John Kenel
Assured Property

Source: Stuff.co.nz

#assuredproperty #housing #rentals #propertyinvestment