Amid the anger, Jeremy Cordeaux offered a piece of plain common sense on this Garage edition of the Court of Public Opinion — one he called, simply, a no-brainer. If governments want older Australians to downsize from big family homes, he argued, they should stop punishing them for doing it, starting with stamp duty.
The Homes Standing Half-Empty
Jeremy sketched a familiar scene: plenty of elderly people living in big old houses with too many bedrooms, homes that no longer suit their needs. Many, he said, would gladly sell up and move to something smaller.
It would free up family-sized housing for the next generation and leave older Australians in homes better matched to how they live now. On paper, it’s exactly the movement a housing-stressed country should want.
The Tax That Stops Them
So what holds them back? The problem, Jeremy argued, is that people quite rightly don’t want to pay the stamp duty they’d face when downsizing. The tax on the new, smaller purchase is a powerful disincentive — a wall of upfront cost between an older owner and a sensible move.
The result is that homes which could be freed up stay occupied, and people who’d prefer to move simply stay put. The very settings that should encourage downsizing, in his view, actively discourage it.
Encourage, Don’t Penalise
Jeremy’s prescription was as plain as his diagnosis: if you want people to downsize, encourage it — don’t penalise it. Remove or cut the stamp-duty barrier for downsizers and you remove the single biggest reason they hesitate.
He was blunt about the culprit, pinning it on what he called greedy, stupid government policies. The fix, to him, needs no grand scheme or new bureaucracy — just the removal of a penalty that shouldn’t be there in the first place.
A Win For Everyone
The beauty of it, in Jeremy’s telling, is that almost everyone gains. Older Australians get a smoother path to a home that suits them. Younger families get access to the larger homes freed up. And the market gets movement where there is currently gridlock.
It’s the kind of practical, unglamorous reform Jeremy returns to again and again — not ideology, just common sense. Governments, he argued, should be clearing the path for sensible choices, not taxing people for making them.
Listen To The Full Episode
Catch the complete Garage edition of The Court of Public Opinion, recorded live around the dining room table.
Watch The Full Episode
The Court of Public Opinion streams live every Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (ACST), right here at jeremycordeaux.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app, and join the conversation with your calls and comments.
