We talk to LJ Hooker’s Chairman about his AO as well as the biggest issues in property.
“I feel humbled by it, it’s something you don’t expect—there’s a lot of worthy people out there who do amazing things,” says LJ Hooker Chairman Greg Paramor of being awarded an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia this week. Paramor was awarded for his distinguished service to the community through executive roles in a range of fields, including breast cancer research, sport, the not-for-profit sector and real estate and property investment industries. Paramor is certainly among the most distinguished real estate professionals in Australia, having been the CEO of Mirvac Group between 2004 and 2008, a past president of the Property Council of Australia and a Fellow of the Australian Property Institute. He is also the cofounder of Equity Real Estate Partners, Growth Equities Mutual, Paladin Australia and the James Fielding Group.
Paramor began his career in real estate in 1972 in Perth, and worked as a leasing operator for a firm called Milner & Company that later became Knight Frank. “It led me into a lifetime career in real estate,” Paramor says. “The sector is quite simplistic in many ways, we provide shelter for every person in Australia in one form or another. It’s a grounded industry, really.”
He believes the biggest issue for Australia’s major cities is getting infrastructure right to provide better places to live and work. Paramor says that some states are better at it than others. “I find Victoria is a really good state to do business across the board because they have very good planning laws,” he says. “I find New South Wales very frustrating because they have convoluted rules and regulations which make it harder to get approvals in an appropriate way. It’s getting better but it’s still got a long way to go. Particularly in a city like Sydney, infrastructure is so critical.”
“The other problem, I think, is the debate around the edges on so-called negative gearing, being able to get a tax deduction on your investment properties,” he says, pointing out that in places like the UK and the US, your home mortgage is tax-deductible as well. “The commentators on that should be reminded that if you look at the economic benefit, it far outweighs keeping it rather than taking it off. Some economists, commentators, need to get their head around that. You cannot split negative gearing away from property and just leave it for equities. The simple fact is 30 per cent of people rent and if you take that off, as Keating tried to do years ago, it caused absolute mayhem in the markets and reduced housing for renters. It needs to be put to bed and the government just needs to put it to bed and take it off any agenda. I expect that to be part of the tax review going on."
Paramor also believes the concerns about foreign investors flooding the Australian property market are unfounded. “We’ve always been an importer of capital ever since European settlement in 1788,” he says. “People have been buying assets in Australia from different parts of the world, so nothing’s new and I have no issue with it if people want to buy down here.” He believes some people get confused between foreign buyers and Australian citizens. “I think the ‘foreign invasion’, particularly the Chinese one, is a bit of a furphy. If buyers are coming from mainland China, it’s because they’re sending a relative down here to settle, go to school, go to university, and most of those people will become Australian citizens at some point and form part of our great country. It makes good headlines, but I don’t think it’s worthy of any serious discussion.”