My office responded to Mr Pearson’s correspondence  within 24 hours of receiving his initial correspondence on the 7th November 2016.

I take great pride in responding in a timely manner to any correspondence I receive.

Mr Pearson was advised that I would be in contact again with him when I had more to report on his suggestion in relation to Stamp Duty which I had referred to the NSW Treasurer for her information and consideration.

Mr Pearson has confirmed to my office that he received an emailed a response from the Treasurer on Tuesday 13th December 2016, 25 working days after his initial request through my office and  the day before your paper published his letter which is well within the 8-10 week period turnaround period that correspondence to a Minister of the crown can normally take.

In the response, Mr Pearson was advised  in part, that Housing affordability is a key priority of the NSW Government, including some 75,000 residential building approvals in the past 12 moths, more than double the average rate under the previous government.With more than 1,000 homes being finished every week (an alltime record for the state) , the increased supply will put a downwood pressure on prices. The NSW government has provided over $695M in assitance to new homebuyers over the past 3 years. Stamp duty concessions have been extended to cover new properties upto $650,000 and land intended for homebuilding up to $450,000. The First Home Owner Grant also provides access to $10,000 for new homes up to a value of $750,000. In addition to direct assitance to first home buyers, the Government has provided almost $1 billion since 2012 to the Housing Acceleration Fund for critical infrastructure to speed up the construction of new homes in growth area.