The hidden cost of scrapping negative gearing and who actually pays for it

Run the numbers. An investor making a $400/week loss on a 47c marginal tax rate used to get around $190 back through negative gearing. They'd cop the remaining $200 loss on the chin and keep the property. That $190 has to come from somewhere now. And that somewhere is the tenant. Rents go up. The loss the government was absorbing through tax deductions gets passed straight through to the renter's weekly bill.