The tax, according to the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC), ‘hits high-rise apartment owners living on the 40th floor or above with a rate increase of up to 50 percent.’
Those living between high-rise levels 21 and 40 have experienced a 40% increase in rates in the past six months, while those who live on 11-20 stores are being forced to cough-up an 30% in fees. Those living on floors 5-10 will have to pay an additional 10%, and tenants occupying lesser floors will not see a rise in rates.
A City of Gold Coast spokeswoman told News.com.au the new method was used to calculate general rates for high-rise units that are a principal place of residence and was done so “to ensure fairness and equity across all ratepayer categories”.
“The general rate for high-rise units will vary depending on the unit’s rate categorisation which takes into [consideration] the unit’s size and floor level,” the spokeswoman said.
“This change ensures unit owners are charged fairly based on the effect that unit size and floor level has on a property’s value,” she added. “The previous method did not take these factors into account. For example, under the previous method a 1st floor high-rise principal place of residence unit may have paid the same general rates as a 40th floor penthouse.”
The spokeswoman also said the change would also ‘bring rates in line with the methods used for other units that are permanent or short-term rentals,’ the Australian outlet reported.
Division 9 councilor Glenn Tozer told ABC Gold Coast that this new rule makes it more fair for the more than 250,000 renters in the city. “When you take the full city into account, there is no reason I can think of that a penthouse owner should pay exactly the same as a ground floor unit, that’s not a fair model,” Tozer said.
People living in more expensive apartments pay a little bit more than people living in a ground floor unit and frankly, I think it’s the right thing to do.
Tozer boasted
Laura Bos, the general manager of Strata Community Association Queensland, said this change has been “terribly handled” with apartment owners feeling “blindsided.”
“Homeowners are rated according to their land value whereas apartment owners are rated according to their property value. The two are very different,” she told news.com.au.
“Why not have the same rate basis for everyone if we are truly talking about parity and equity? There have been assumptions made about the wealth of people living in apartments, who are facing the same mortgage increases, wages stagnation and cost-of-living issues as everyone else,” she said. “Some are also pensioners. It would have been a much better idea to gradually introduce the new change over a period of time so people could at least prepare.”
We are concerned this will become more widespread as councils grapple with increased costs and little support from state and federal government, something that is understood and acknowledged.
She added
Some people, according to ABC, are okay with the new rule and think it’s more equitable because it supplements those who can afford less while those more fortunate can pay more, while others are frustrated that their bill is much more now but have no way out of it.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
One thing I’ve learned since 2020 is just how insane the Australian and Kiwi governments are. I admit, that’s rich coming from an American, but if California were a country then Australia would be its closest equivalent.
Proverbs 22:7 The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
This is just more conditioning for the total reality of the “you’ll own nothing and be happy” paradigm, as they suck more money out of an indebted and struggling population. Inflation and cost of living crisis are not limited to the U.S.: the U.K., Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan and South Korea are all experiencing similar things to varying degrees. That’s what happens when world economies are shutdown, and central banks print endless helicopter money, and the popular rakes up more debt and is addicted to stimulus.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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Brother, typo on title, ‘tenants’.
Due to this article, I’m wondering if I’m still on planet earth. It seems there are a strange species of people that do many legendary, ridiculous things to further their goals—sarcasm, not alluding to the reptilian theories floating on the internet. But a “view tax”? How stupid is this?
(Wandering off-topic) I think these lizard people are just devils wanting to throw people off-course.
“Michael Barkun, professor of political science at Syracuse University, posits that the idea of a reptilian conspiracy originated in the fiction of Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard, in his story “The Shadow Kingdom”, published in Weird Tales in August 1929. This story drew on theosophical ideas of the “lost worlds” of Atlantis and Lemuria, particularly Helena Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine written in 1888, with its reference to “‘dragon-men’ who once had a mighty civilization on a Lemurian continent”. – Wikipedia
Fiction (Conan), and more fiction (Blavatsky) spawned the tall tales it seems.