David Whitburn

In an ever changing world the property investor must remain aware of the environment they operate in.  Like in hunting down the deals good investors must learn to analyse information quickly to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Manakau City Council’s (MCC) Real Estate Transfer Tax

There was an item reported on Tuesday’s news on both television and radio that I saw and heard.  The item concerned me as it proposed to tax all Real Estate transfer in Manukau City.  For readers of my blog that don’t know about Manukau City – this is an area of Auckland with around 332,000 people living in it covering much of south and SE Auckland.

The figures quoted were from 7-12k.  I was perplexed as to why they would want to do this, as it would hurt many home owners as well as ‘evil’ property investors and even ‘more evil’ property traders.

However the answer is simple – the MCC wanted to reduce rates.   However my prediction is that rates would still increase if this tax was present in addition to having a local government imposed Real Estate transfer tax.

Fortunately this week I have heard that many complaints have been directed to the MCC .  Keep up the good work team.  They are trying to dilute their intention by stating that is was not really their intention at all, it was just an option.  So concerned property traders and investors in Manukau City can rest easy (at least for a while).  The media hyped it up.

The MCC now have this up on their website at http://www.manukau.govt.nz/default.aspx?id=7501:

“Recent media reports about a proposal for a Real Estate Transfer Tax in Manukau city have given the impression that the council is moving to put such a tax in place.  This is incorrect.

The proposal was contained in a submission the council made in April to the Local Government Rates Inquiry.  The Inquiry Panel was put in place by the Government in response to public concern about the level of rate increases outlined in Long Term Council Community Plans nation-wide, and public submissions were made on possible alternatives to rates funding for territorial local authorities.

Manukau City Council’s submission to this inquiry contained several options for alternative funding, and ways to reduce the burden on ratepayers.  These included:

• A Real Estate Transfer Tax.  This could be structured in a variety of ways, such as in tiers of charges, and a minimum threshold to reduce the burden on owners of lower-value homes.  Buyers, sellers or both would be responsible for the tax.
• Government fully fund schools for all utility charges, including wastewater
• Rating exemptions be re-examined (e.g Crown land), with a view to all land being fully rated, and any rate concessions be based on the circumstances and following consultation with their local communities.
• Where services are transferred to a council-controlled organisation, the cost to ratepayers for those services is included in the calculations for rates rebates
• The basis for allocating the Local Authority Petroleum Tax is reviewed to something more appropriate than rate revenue, and the total petrol tax take is used for roads.
• The Regional Council (or the Greater Auckland Council) is responsible for funding MOTAT and the Auckland War Memorial Museum and any other facilities that are agreed to be regional facilities.
• The Crown is liable for development contributions on the same basis as other developers.”

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