Salta Properties boss share real reason behind Victoria’s major building delays

The billionaire businessmen behind one of Australia’s biggest developers say government red tape and the CFMEU were only some of the problems fuelling the state’s housing crisis.

One of Australia’s biggest developers says red tape, state government taxes and the CFMEU are causing major delays to vital housing projects and driving investment interstate.

Billionaire businessmen Sam and Sam Snr Tarascio have cast doubt over the Allan government’s willingness to stimulate much-needed growth across Victoria, pointing to a series of deeply rooted roadblocks that are stifling development across the state.

In an exclusive sit down with the Saturday Herald Sun, Sam Tarascio Jnr — who has run Salta Properties alongside his father since 2005 — said the cost of doing business in Victoria was delaying a huge pipeline of affordable housing and diverting investment interstate.

The leading property figure said soaring taxes, a sluggish planning approvals process and an “unproductive” labour force — exacerbated by years of union control — were the top three barriers for the sector.

And the key roadblocks standing in the way of the government’s plan to build 800,000 in a decade.

Sam Tarascio Snr and his son Sam Jnr, who also sits on the executive board and own Salta Properties - one of the largest privately-owned companies in Australia. Picture: Jason Edwards

“There are huge tax imposts that are pushing against affordability rather than doing the opposite,” he said.

“(The government) has made no changes to the adverse tax settings that have been put in place over the last five to seven years.

“That needs to happen to stimulate the market.”

Sam Jnr noted that the government had taken some “positive steps” towards speeding up the planning process.

“But there is still plenty of room to move,” he said.

Sam Snr, a self-made billionaire with more than 50 years of experience in the industry, said over-regulation was another major issue.

“The way things work today are quite different to the way they were before,” he said.

“There’s a lot more regulation now. There’s also the union movement and the way that it’s evolved.”

Sam Tarascio, Managing Director of Salta Properties.

Following explosive allegations of corruption, standover tactics and bikie infiltration on construction sites, Sam Jnr urged the government to seize the opportunity to ensure productivity on worksites equates to the mammoth costs forced upon developers.

“High costs are okay as long as it comes with high productivity,” he said.

“At the moment there is both high cost and low productivity and ever increasing costs and ever reducing productivity.

“That’s the big gap that I think the government is really going to have to lean into.”

He said the state’s destructive tax regime was “without question” driving away investment.

“I’m hearing directly from investors that if you look at the pecking order in Australia, when investors come into the country, it’s now Sydney, Brisbane, then Melbourne,” he said.

“It used to be Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane.”

A Victorian government spokesperson said it was “pulling every lever at its disposal” to build more homes.

“Victoria continues to have more homes built and approved than any other state – thousands more than Queensland or NSW,” he said.