Treasury: Negative Gearing Reforms Will Have ‘Little to No Effect’ on House Prices

Federal Treasury has delivered a serious rebuke to the Coalition for exaggerating the impact of Labor’s negative gearing and capital gains changes.

In emails released under freedom of information, acting treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer requested the department fact check the Coalition’s claims that Labor’s policies would cause house prices to fall.

In response, Treasury issued a correction: “The [s]tatement is not consistent with our advice.”

“We did not say that the proposed policies ‘will’ reduce house prices,” the email reads.

“We said that they ‘could’ put downward pressure on house prices in the short-term depending on what else was going on in the market at the time.

“But in the long-term they were unlikely to have much impact.”

Labor has jumped on the release, with shadow treasurer Chris Bowen saying that the government had been “caught red-handed” misrepresenting Treasury’s advice.

For his part, treasurer Josh Frydenberg denied that the government was misrepresenting Treasury, pointing to the Financial Review’s take on the release that changes “could” put downward pressure on house prices in the short term.

Frydenberg quoted building industry group the Masters Builders Association figures.

“If Labor’s policy is in place you’ll see 32,000 fewer jobs and 42,000 fewer homes being built.”

Related: House Prices Still to Bottom Out: Report

House prices hit spending

It has been a difficult week in economic policy, with GDP figures released on Wednesday revealing that the economy has slowed significantly, entering a “per capita recession” for the first time in 13 years.

Retail trade figures for the March quarter were also sluggish, with falling house prices impacting wealth and spending.

RBA governor Philip Lowe highlighted the link between the two at the AFR annual business summit on Wednesday.

“The evidence is that a tightening in credit supply has contributed to the slowdown in credit growth,” Lowe said.

“The main story, though, is one of reduced demand for credit, rather than reduced supply.

“When housing prices are falling, investors are less likely to enter the market and to borrow. So too are owner-occupiers for a while.”