The federal opposition has indicated plans to limit negative gearing to new housing and halve the capital gains tax concessions.

Labor’s suggestions that this policy will largely impact wealthy investors is not wholly correct, according to the chief executive of Starr Partners, Doug Driscoll.

His network of brokers and real estate agents are finding low to middle income individuals and families are active in the property investment space.

“Many nurses, teachers and policemen are also purchasing investment properties; they make up the investor profile, too. The opposition’s proposed policy could inadvertently disadvantage many of the people it is trying to help,” Mr Driscoll said.

Means-testing would be a more effective way to approach tax concessions, according to Mr Driscoll.

“This would ensure that higher-income earners are not benefiting the most, and tip the balance in favour of those that need the subsidies the most. Alternatively, capping the volume of properties an investor can negatively gear will reduce the number of negatively geared properties, without limiting it to a subset of homes,” he said.