Government incentives boost Meriton’s apartment sales

The NSW government’s beefed-up stamp duty relief package for first-home buyers has produced record numbers of transactions at Meriton Apartments.

Meriton’s Lighthouse at Dee Why.

The NSW government’s beefed-up stamp duty relief package for first-home buyers has produced record numbers of transactions at Meriton Apartments, which is developing thousands of apartments across Sydney’s suburbs.

James Sialepis, Meriton’s director of residential sales, said the recent decision by the NSW government to exempt eligible first-home buyers from paying stamp duty on apartment purchases priced at under $800,000 and offering discounted stamp duty on properties up to $1m had resulted in an immediate surge of inquiries and sales at Meriton. “The recent increase to the stamp duty threshold doubled the amount of eligible property within the Meriton portfolio and buyers have responded,” Mr Sialepis said on Friday.

“This weekend, first-home buyer inspections doubled compared to the previous weekend, and sales deposits reflected this jump instantly with first-home buyers accounting for more than half of all deposits taken — the highest number on record for Meriton.”

The spectacular outlook from a living room at Meriton Parramatta.

Mr Sialepis conceded that first-home buyer sales had gradually improved over recent months due to the low interest rate environment and dwindling apartment supply, but the recent increase to the qualifying thresholds, now $1m, had been well received.

“With the previous threshold ($650,000 for full stamp duty exemption and $650,000-$800,000 for a partial reduction) too low, therefore limiting buyer choice, many first-home buyers were sidelined and resigned to renting in the suburbs they preferred until changes were made.

“The NSW government has tweaked the parameters at precisely the right time, ensuring ­momentum in the construction ­industry is maintained,” he said.

“The new threshold is now in line with the average Sydney house price, offering more choice to aspiring homeowners so they can live where they want not where the threshold may dictate.”

However, Mr Sialepis said the new challenge moving forward would be to ensure all grants, whether federal or state, worked off the same threshold so first-home buyers could have access to the maximum incentive and create a positive economic flow through a broad range of industry sectors involved in residential ­construction.

By incentivising first-home buyers into a property of first choice, presumably into larger homes earlier in life, the long-term benefit is that first-home buyers may stay put for longer, and avoid paying full stamp duty on upsizing down the line.

Meriton founder Harry Triguboff said earlier this week that prices had started to rise by about 3 per cent at his apartment developments in Sydney’s Zetland, Pagewood, Lidcombe, Dee Why, Alexandria, Mascot, Parramatta, North Ryde and Rhodes.

“The alternate to buying apartments is difficult to find,” Mr Triguboff said. “Banks pay little interest, the sharemarket is going nowhere and the gold is at an all-time high.”