Duties Act 1997

The Chief Commissioner may approve a shared equity scheme for the purposes of this Act.

A shared equity scheme means any arrangements made for the purpose of, or having the effect of, providing for—

2 or more persons to jointly acquire ownership of a property under an agreement for sale or transfer, and

one or more of those persons (home buyers) to have the exclusive right to occupy the property after the transfer occurs, with no limitation as to time, and

one or more of the other persons (equity partners) to acquire an interest in the property that includes the right to a specified share of the capital gain in respect of the property but does not include a right to occupy the property, and

the home buyer or, if there is more than one, the home buyers jointly, to acquire not less than a 20% share in the ownership of the property, and

the home buyer or, if there is more than one, each of them, to purchase from the equity partner or, if there is more than one, any of them, an increased share in the ownership of the property at an amount agreed between the home buyer and the equity partner.

A shared equity scheme can be approved under this section only if the equity partner in the shared equity scheme or, if there is more than one equity partner, each of them, is an approved equity partner.

An approved equity partner is any of the following—

the New South Wales Land and Housing Corporation,

a registered community housing provider within the meaning of Part 3 of the Community Housing Providers (Adoption of National Law) Act 2012,

a person who is prescribed by the regulations as an approved equity partner for the purposes of this section or who belongs to a class of persons so prescribed.

The Treasurer may issue guidelines for the approval of shared equity schemes and the Chief Commissioner is to comply with those guidelines.

The guidelines are to be published on the NSW legislation website.