REIA Opening Statement to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee
Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 and Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026
Chair, Senators, thank you for the opportunity to appear today.
My name is Jacob Caine, and I am the president of the Real Estate Institute of Australia. The REIA is the national peak body and voice for the real estate profession in this country.
Our submission makes a simple point: Australia's housing crisis is fundamentally a supply crisis. Housing affordability will not be solved by reshaping tax settings in a way that reduces rental investment, adds uncertainty, and risks slowing the delivery of new homes.
Today, more than 7 million Australians live in rental homes. The government's own modelling estimates these reforms will transition only 75,000 of them into home ownership over a decade, equivalent to one in every hundred renters. The other 99 will be left in a rental market with fewer properties and higher rents.
We recognise the policy intent of these reforms: to encourage investment into new supply. But the independent modelling commissioned by REIA, Master Builders Australia, the Housing Industry Association and the Property Council shows the practical effect is likely to be the opposite.
On the tax changes alone, the modelling estimates 14,032 fewer dwelling starts over the first four years. Construction output down by $1.9 billion, GDP down by $1.374 billion, and construction employment lower by more than 2,000 full-time equivalent workers by 2029–30.
Even after including the government's $2 billion housing support program, the combined impact remains negative: 8,742 fewer dwelling starts over four years, rents higher, GDP lower, and construction employment down by 3,854 FTE workers.
That is the core concern. These reforms do not build more homes. They disrupt and damage investor behaviour in a market already facing acute supply shortages.
REIA's position is not that Australia's housing tax system should never be reviewed. But it should be reviewed holistically, across federal, state and local settings, and with one test above all others: will this increase housing supply?
On that test, we do not believe these bills, in their current form, receive a pass mark.
Read the Opening Statement here
Find the modelling here
