As Australians endure the latest acute phase of a decades-long housing crisis, why are property owners allowed to leave homes derelict and prime land vacant indefinitely?
A man's home may be his castle, as the ancient English legal principle goes, but no castle is completely immune from attack."Traditionally we work on the assumption that if it's private property, people are free to do with it as they please, they can leave it vacant, not use it," explains property law expert Cathy Sherry from Macquarie University.
estimates that about 1.3 per cent of Australian homes were empty in mid-2021 — that's up to 140,000 vacant dwellings. These elderly long-term residents of the area say the siblings owned about a half-dozen homes nearby. It seems most of them were sold and are in use, but who knows if there are other properties they owned sitting idle.
As you can see, there are many reasons why properties may lie dormant: deceased estates being processed, development applications, legal and family disputes, lack of finances to progress a development, simple laziness, and deliberate land banking, among them. The tax rate ramps up the longer a home is left empty, and the tax now also targets the land banking of vacant lots in inner Melbourne.
"The state government absolutely can acquire land for any purpose it wants. It will pay compensation under the just terms act, but it certainly has the power to do so." "Certainly the legislation is very clear proof that the government does have power to take people's homes or even, in this case, authorise private citizens to take other private citizens' homes," she says.
Housing House Prices Rents Vacancy Rates Affordable Housing Housing Affordability Compulsory Acquisition Land Tax Vacant Property Cathy Sherry
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