The Property Council of Australia has today welcomed the exemption for leases and other acquisitions of interests in land in the "ordinary course of business" within the new mergers and acquisitions regime.
The exemption will support the offices, industrial parks and retail malls that shape Australian cities and boost the delivery of new homes.
This exemption carves out thousands of ordinary property leases from unnecessary red tape, allowing property businesses to continue focusing on investing and building Australia's world-class cities.
In addition, several other key changes announced today include:
- simplifying the approach to monetary thresholds for asset acquisitions
- streamlining notification obligations around serial acquisitions
- expanding existing exemptions applicable to financial market activities
- practical adjustments to the automatic voiding provisions that still preserve the incentives for parties to notify proposed mergers.
The Property Council has been advocating for exemptions to be applied to routine property transactions to reduce unnecessary red tape since the regime was first proposed.
Property Council Chief Executive Mike Zorbas said this exemption will allow the mergers and acquisitions regime to focus on deals that genuinely impact market competition, rather than being bogged down by thousands of standard property transactions.
"This is a common sense decision that will cut red tape, help boost cities and build more homes.
"Without this decision, standard property transactions would have faced months of delays and added costs. Delays to new homes in particular would have ultimately driven up prices for homebuyers.
"The exemption strikes the right balance to protect markets without bogging down the regime with run-of-the-mill property deals.
"The exemption acknowledges that standard property transactions, such as acquiring, leasing or developing land, are not anti-competitive actions, but fundamental aspects of doing business in the property sector.
"This move will ensure investors, developers and tenants can proceed with confidence that their transactions will not be bogged down by unnecessary regulatory burden.
"It will also allow the ACCC to get on with their important work on genuine transactions with market-structure implications and not thousands of vanilla property leases or purchases.
"The Property Council has constantly called for a clear and workable merger regime that does not bog down the property industry unnecessarily and provides legal clarity for the industry. This is the latest step in the right direction."
