WHAT WAS CLAIMED
The Albanese government has proposed a spare bedroom tax.
OUR VERDICT
False. The claim originates from a private company's tax reform proposal.
AAP FACTCHECK - The Labor federal government has not proposed a tax that would target households with unoccupied bedrooms, despite claims circulating online.
Numerous social media posts suggest the Albanese government announced the tax as part of the federal government's recent Economic Reform Roundtable.
However, there is no record of the government proposing any such tax. The claim stems instead from a property analytics company's tax reform proposal aimed at addressing "inefficiencies" in housing allocation.
"In the latest money grab from Sir Tax a Lot, otherwise know as Grim Jim Chalmers and Albo Sleazy, they have now come up with a brand new way to slug the Australian people," one man says in a Facebook video.
"That's right folks, they're gonna tax your spare bedrooms ... if you've got a house with three bedrooms and two of them aren't used, you're gonna get taxed for that."
In a different post, a user has shared a graphic reading: "Albo wants to introduce a bedroom tax. If you paid for home, have spare rooms. The government will tax each spare room."
However, talk of a spare bedroom tax has not come from the government.
Instead, it originated from a proposed tax reform-based solution to the housing shortage by property analytics company Cotality, previously known as CoreLogic, specifically comments from research head Eliza Owen.
While Ms Owen didn't use the term "spare bedroom tax", in various media reports in late August 2025 she described a mismatch between the number of people per household and the number of bedrooms per house, and suggested tax reform as a potential solution.
"It's perfectly acceptable and desirable for people to have spare bedrooms," The Sydney Morning Herald reported her as saying.
"[But] you could ask them to pay for it through land tax or you could incentivise them to move on through the abolition of stamp duty or some combination of both.
"It seems unfair to ask younger households to pay higher and higher prices for stock that is being utilised by older households."
The reports coincided with the federal government's Economic Reform Roundtable, from August 19 to 21, 2025.
Hosted by the treasurer, the roundtable brought together business and government leaders and other experts to "improve productivity, enhance economic resilience and strengthen budget sustainability".
Some claims on social media suggest the spare bedroom tax was mooted by the government at the event.
The government accepted submission of items for discussion prior to the roundtable but there's no mention of the tax in any of the materials.
Cotality told AAP FactCheck it did not submit a proposal for discussion.
It also said it didn't propose a bedroom tax, pointing to its research note on disparities in the makeup of Australian households.
The spokesperson added: "Cotality has never proposed a 'bedroom tax'. We disagree with a tax of this nature.
"We did not make any submission to the roundtable, nor do we have any awareness of any taxes that were discussed."
While the discussion at the roundtable took place behind closed doors, a Treasury spokesperson told AAP FactCheck: "This did not come up at the roundtable and it was never considered by the government."
AAP FactCheck could find no mention of the government or any senior Labor figures proposing or promoting a spare bedroom tax in any official government media releases or publicly released policies.
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