Story perspectives

Labor's Housing Tax Overhaul Breaks 2025 Pledge, Shifts 75k Homes

5/13/2026

Summary

Story summary

Labor admitted breaking its 2025 pledge by curbing negative gearing and 50% CGT discount.
The 2026 budget proposes the most extensive housing-tax overhaul in a century.
Treasury modelling predicts the reforms will shift 75,000 homes to first-home buyers and raise $3.6 billion over four years.
Opposition Coalition pledged to roll back changes, warning they would cut $70 billion.
Greens leader Larissa Waters called measures “tinkering” and urged extending $250 offset to earners.

History

Historical Context

In 1999 the Howard government replaced indexation with a 50 % capital-gains-tax discount, a reform that still shapes Australian housing policy. Decades later, Labor’s 2026 budget proposes halving that discount and limiting negative gearing, measures that could recoup about $10.9 b in revenue lost to negative gearing in 2023-24. The debate now pits Labor against the Coalition and property lobby.

1 of 2

Story summary

Labor admitted breaking its 2025 pledge by curbing negative gearing and 50% CGT discount.
The 2026 budget proposes the most extensive housing-tax overhaul in a century.
Treasury modelling predicts the reforms will shift 75,000 homes to first-home buyers and raise $3.6 billion over four years.
Opposition Coalition pledged to roll back changes, warning they would cut $70 billion.
Greens leader Larissa Waters called measures “tinkering” and urged extending $250 offset to earners.

1 / 2