Young buyers say they will still put money in share market despite incoming changes to capital gains tax

Holly Nebauer is waiting for a call from a real estate agent as her daughter, three-year-old Indy, plays at her ankles.

The 31-year-old and her fiance are hoping to secure their forever home in Bungendore, about 40 kilometres out of Canberra.

It will be the third property the couple has bought since 2020, having sold their first one. They expect to list their current house on the market soon.

Their first home, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse in Canberra’s north, cost $466,000 at the start of the pandemic and sold for almost $200,000 more a year-and-a-half later.

Ms Nebauer says she had invested in the share market as a way to buy property and is now coaching her little sister to do the same, despite Federal Budget changes to the capital gains tax and negative gearing.

A flat 50 per cent discount on capital gains will be removed from July 2027 and replaced with an indexed, inflation-based discount, with a minimum tax of 30 per cent.

The Albanese government has been criticised for breaking election promises with the changes.

The decision to include investments, not just housing, took Ms Nebauer by surprise.

“But we knew as a society that something had to change,” she told AAP.

“I imagine I’ll still be making more on my investments than I would be if I had all my money sitting in the bank.”

The chief executive of investment company Raiz, Brendan Malone, said the government’s proposed changes would still allow young Australians to make money if they do not panic and consider shifting their investments.

He expects more activity in dividend-paying stocks, which are likely to perform better than high-growth stocks. They may even perform better than they did under the prior discount.

“Being in the market, no matter what the market does, will put you in a much better position over time,” Mr Malone says.

But it’s a sentiment that contrasts with what coalition politicians believe.

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson will outline his response to Labor’s “bad faith budget” in a speech at the National Press Club on Wednesday.

“Where we should have got unity, we had the prime minister stoke fights around the kitchen tables of the nation,” he will say.

“And where we should have got a path for growth, we got the politics of redistribution and resentment.”

Mr Wilson will pledge the coalition will consult on a Small Business Act, with four key pillars.

This includes a single definition for a small business, and a provision that each new law require a small business regulatory impact statement to provide a pathway for feedback.

“We will replace Labor’s pessimism with Liberal optimism,” he will say.

“A nation where the taxpayers are respected, hard work pays off, and Australians feel in control of their lives.”

Nationals leader Matt Canavan will also deliver a speech, arguing at the Rural Press Club the government’s new tax settings are a “fundamental breach” of Australian’s rights, given they undo election promises made by the Albanese government.

“The Labor Party has no mandate for these taxes. They should be opposed in the parliament for that reason alone,” he will say.