Self-Made Battlers From The School Of Hard Knocks Devastated As Government Trims The Discount They Get For Owning Extra Houses

Australia’s savviest self-made investors (proud graduates of the School of Hard Knocks) are reeling this week after the government made slight, heavily cushioned changes to the generous tax discount they receive purely for owning several houses.

“I built this from nothing” said one investor, gesturing at his fourth property. “Nothing except the negative gearing, the capital gains discount, the inheritance and house prices going up 400 per cent since 1999… Everything else, all me.”

The changes (which grandfather every existing investment and mostly bite years from now) have nonetheless triggered a 0.4 per cent dip and a wave of grief.

“Bless ’em, hey…” said Gomeroi woman Bev. “‘School of Hard Knocks’ — babe, you got a tax break for buying your fifth house and the value dipped less than half a per cent… That’s not a hard knock. That’s a soft tap on a pillow made of money.” She sipped her tea. “Want the actual School of Hard Knocks? Try the housing our mob gets. Try the waitlist. Try fourteen people in a three-bedroom out bush. Nah — the savviest investors just found a rounding error and called it a crisis.”