Australia’s real estate industry has risen to be the nation’s leading economic force, with recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics illustrating its rise.
The figures, released early this week, have revealed that over the December 2015 quarter, the real estate industry generated more than double the amount of taxable profit compared to the mining industry.
According to the ABS figures, the real estate industry generated $8.59 billion worth of taxable profit over the December 2015 quarter, compared to the $3.66 billion generated by the mining industry.
This is in comparison to the December 2014 quarter, where the mining industry generated $5.1 billion of taxable profit compared to the real estate industry’s $4.4 billion.
The December 2015 quarterly figures are the first time in records dating back to the September 1985 quarter that the real estate industry’s taxable profit has outstripped that of the mining industry.
The release of the figures comes at an interesting time, as the future of negative gearing on housing dominates discussion about tax reform in Australia.
The Federal Opposition has already announced the platform on the tax break it will take to the next election, while two weeks later investors are still waiting to hear what the Government’s position will be as party tensions over possible changes reportedly escalate.
There has been heavy speculation the Coalition is considering a cap on the dollar amount that can be claimed each year via negative gearing and media outlets reported over the weekend that Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull refused to rule out his government making the changes retrospective.
