South Australian Labor has made housing the centrepiece of its state election campaign, with Premier Peter Malinauskas announcing a $500 million land acquisition fund and stamp duty exemptions for older buyers moving into new builds.
At the party’s campaign launch at the Adelaide Convention Centre, Mr Malinauskas outlined a scheme where the government would purchase land for housing developments, complete master planning and civil works, then on-sell to private developers with conditions requiring them to build.
“We don’t want to see people land banking, making money off not building homes – we want to see industry making money because they are building homes,” Mr Malinauskas told the ABC.
The fund, to be managed by Renewal SA, would operate as a revolving facility, with proceeds from land sales reinvested to enable further acquisitions.
Potential sites include the Department of Defence’s Warradale and Hampstead barracks.
Labor said site selection would depend on developers being able to bring housing precincts to market within five years, with land sold at fair value or below.
The policy sits alongside an October announcement in which Labor committed to financially underwriting up to $500 million of apartment construction if re-elected.
Mr Malinauskas also unveiled a stamp duty exemption for buyers aged 60 and over who sell their principal residence and purchase a new or off-the-plan dwelling with a smaller footprint.
The new property must be valued at no more than $2 million.
Labor said the saving on a $2 million home would be approximately $103,000, with the policy expected to cost $70 million over the forward estimates.
“By removing stamp duty for them, they will have the opportunity to go into a new build and free that home up for a young South Australian family,” Mr Malinauskas said.
Liberal MP Ben Hood was critical of the stamp duty measure, questioning how many homes would result.
“A couple of hundred people will benefit from this and it will be probably in about four years’ time, that’s how long they’re going to have to wait,” Mr Hood said.
He also renewed attacks on Labor’s health record, referencing its 2022 election promise to fix ambulance ramping.
“Ramping has doubled in this state in the last four years,” Hood said.
Mr Malinauskas acknowledged his government was “not perfect” but said it had delivered on the majority of its promises.
He pointed to improved ambulance response times for life-threatening emergencies.
The South Australian election will be held on March 21.
