Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has swatted away questions about changes to negative gearing, amid reports of secret modelling.

It follows reports in the Nine newspapers on Wednesday that the federal government has sought advice from Treasury on scaling back negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions for property investors.

If Labor follows through on the modelling, housing tax breaks could form a major battleground at the upcoming federal election – reminiscent of the 2019 campaign.

Albanese brushed off the claims on Wednesday, but did not rule them out.

“I’m sure the public service are looking at policy ideas, that’s because we value them,” he said in Tasmania.

“But we have our housing policy, it’s out there for all to see. It’s currently being blocked by a No-alition of the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens.

“Our government is fixing housing supply by getting our legislation through the Senate.”

The Commonwealth is trying to pass two key pieces of housing legislation: Help to Buy, which would reduce deposit requirements for first-home buyers via a government loan guarantee, and Build to Rent, which tax concessions to the sector with the aim of delivering more homes built for renting.

However, the bills have been blocked by the Coalition and the Greens, who want a cap on rent increases and for developers’ tax handouts to be phased out.

Negative gearing allows investors to claim deductions on losses, while the capital gains tax discount halves the amount of tax paid by Australians who sell assets that have been owned for 12 months or more.

Scaling back these tax breaks could dis-incentivise rich investors from holding onto several properties, the Greens say.

Anthony Albanese repeatedly told Australians that he wouldn’t change legislated tax relief, or to tax Super or franking credits — then he did.

Now the Prime Minister won’t rule out changes to negative gearing or capital gains tax. pic.twitter.com/xMQ7RCiy93

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) September 25, 2024

Opposition frontbencher Simon Birmingham blasted the reports on Wednesday.

“Here we go again … the Albanese Labor government saying one thing on tax policy but looking at doing another,” he told Sky News.

“Before the last election, there were going to be no changes to stage-three tax cuts, no changes to superannuation changes, no tinkering with franking credits – yet they’ve done all of those things.”

Albanese argued on Thursday that tax measures were separate from his government’s housing reforms.

In 2019, then-Labor leader Bill Shorten went to the federal election promising to halve the capital gains tax deduction and limit negative gearing on new properties. The party shelved the policies after its election loss.

The next federal election must be held by May.

-with AAP