A radical plan to tax vacant homes has been proposed to ease South Australia’s housing crisis.
Anti-Poverty Network SA says there are up to 20,000 empty homes across the Greater Adelaide region – more than enough to accommodate more than 7000 South Australians currently sleeping rough.
Better using vacant homes would also reduce the wait list for public housing, where nearly 14,000 South Australians are registered, APN SA spokesman John Kempen said.
Mr Kempen said a vacant houses levy would reduce competition for rentals, increase affordability and boost public housing supply at a time when new house builds were being slowed by labour and materials shortages.
A radical plan to tax vacant SA homes has been proposed.
Under the organisation’s proposal, empty homes would be taxed at 0.5 per cent of their property value, meaning an owner of a property valued at $1.011m – the current Adelaide median house price – could be slugged $5055 a year.
The tax would increase dramatically for those with multiple vacant homes, with a maximum 20 per cent marginal rate for empty houses with a combined worth of more than $6.812m.
Owners of empty homes who refused to pay the levy would have their property compulsorily acquired to add to public housing supply, Mr Kempen said.
“It’s unconscionable to leave thousands of habitable homes empty while people reside in cars or tents or struggle to pay their rent,’’ he said.
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“While there are varied reasons why houses are kept, we know there are thousands of dwellings sitting empty, sometimes for years, simply because of investor preferences.
“We need a housing system that treats housing as a fundamental need and right, not a commodity.’’
Mr Kempen said the levy would apply to any houses that were not slept in overnight, including empty short-term rentals such as Airbnbs.
“In these cases, the vacant period is the cumulative portion of a year when the property wasn’t booked,’’ he said.
“A property is also deemed vacant where the block is empty or the dwelling is dilapidated.
“In these cases, an exemption from the VHL (vacant house levy) would apply once a new build has been contracted.
“This will substantially eliminate land banking, along with stimulating new builds in desirable areas.’’
The levy has been proposed to help ease the housing crisis.
A similar levy on vacant homes exists in Victoria, where owners are taxed a hefty 1 per cent of the property’s value.
However, the success of the Victorian initiative has been questionable, with many property owners unaware of the requirement to self-report their vacant homes.
South Australian Council of Social Service chief executive officer Catherine Earl said vacant house taxes overseas had been more successful, including in France, where vacancy rates dropped 13 per cent in the first four years after the levy was introduced.
“We know that a vacancy tax will not fix the housing crisis but is one of a number of policies needed to make renting easier,’’ Dr Earl said.
“Other policies would include minimum energy standards for rental properties, fully banning rent bidding, rent capping within existing tenancies and the state government’s promised portable rental bonds scheme.’’
A SA Government spokesman said there were no plans to introduce a vacant house levy, adding the state government invested $100m a year to address homelessness and had “delivered the first significant net increase to South Australia’s public housing stock in a generation’’.
The levy proposal follows a brazen suggestion last year to tax spare bedrooms in a bid to address the national housing crisis.