Give back GST on new homes to lower cost of housing, says NZ Initiative

Mon, 18 Nov 2013

By Pattrick Smellie Nov. 18 (BusinessDesk) – The government should give the GST paid for a new house to city councils in return for opening up new land for housing, says the New Zealand Initiative in the third and final instalment of thinking on housing affordability. The Wellington-based think tank says that some $60,000 of the cost of a $400,000 new home goes in GST, now charged at 15 percent on all land and materials used in new home construction. The introduction and increases in GST since 1986 meant “a substantial additional price …ad...

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