This week a new industry survey showed confidence within the property industry has fallen to its lowest level since the depths of the Covid pandemic, with Labor’s budget continuing to be propped up by ever increasing property taxes.

A listed fund I can not name had made a decision to divest and exit Victorian property market – math simply isn’t mathing and fund managers will be unable to deliver shareholder returns at this level of state taxes imposed on commercial and large format retail property.

A new industry survey has revealed the Allan Labor Government’s nation-high property taxes have sapped confidence in Victoria’s construction sector to a low last reached during Covid pandemic.

The survey results are drawn from more than 530 construction firms and come as the Victorian Government has abandoned its promise to build 80,000 new homes each and every year for the next decade.

Furthermore, the recent State Budget confirmed $21.5 billion – nearly half of Victoria’s tax take – will be raised from property across 2024-25, including $7.8 billion in land tax, $10.1 billion in stamp duty, $1.49 billion in Covid debt levy on landholdings, $1 billion in fire services levy and $250 million in the growth area infrastructure contribution levy.

To add insult to injury, with construction being labor and material intensive business, new report has confirmed that over the past decade Victorian businesses are paying twice as much combined payroll tax, land tax and stamp duty.

The new analysis follows data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) confirming across 2022-23, Victoria had 7,606 fewer registered businesses, compared to 11,031 more in Queensland and 8,147 more in New South Wales.

Despite these massive tax increases on Victorian businesses over the past decade, Labor’s net debt is set to reach a record $187.8 billion by 2027-28, with interest repayments set to hit almost $26 million each and every day.