NSW Budget: Regional winners and losers

But investment property owners have emerged as the biggest losers after plans to slug them with $1.5 billion in land taxes.

On June 18 NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey warned the budget would be restrained and it was, with only marginal relief for struggling Aussies battling the cost-of-living crisis.

The budget remains in deficit, but the deficit will fall from $9.7 billion in 2023/2024 to $3.6 billion in 24/25.

Part of the issue is the decision by the Commonwealth Grants Commission on GST allocation which will leave NSW $11.9 billion worse off over the next four years.

Finance Minister Courtney Houssos described the budget as a budget of "must-haves, not nice to haves" while the Treasurer said it was a "responsible budget in difficult economic times".

Here is a breakdown of what the budget means for regional NSW.

Social housing: Housing is the centrepiece of the budget with $5.1 billion allocated to build 8400 homes across the state, with priority to be given to survivors of domestic and family violence.

Also included is $1 billion to repair 33,500 existing social houses.

The Treasurer did not provide a specific breakdown across the state of where the housing will be built.

The state's emergency housing and homeless services will also receive an additional $527.6 million over four years.

"We are in the midst of a housing crisis and we have to make this intervention," Mr Mookhey said.

Cost of living relief: $189 million has been allocated for bulk billing initiatives. GP practices that bulk-bill 70 per cent can claim a complete tax rebate for the payroll tax they otherwise would have to pay for the wages of contractor GPs. This should also relieve emergency departments in hospitals that are struggling.

Health workers: $200 million has been set aside to accommodate health workers in the regions. The government plans to buy 120 dwellings, including motels and other suitable properties, while also looking at building housing and refurbishing old sites.

Hospitals: $481 million for emergency departments and $275 million will go to hospitals and health services including those in the Tweed, Sutherland, Cooma, Bowral, Glen Innes, Griffith Cowra and Wentworth.

Notably, Port Macquarie Hospital receives $265 million for critical upgrades.

Education: $1.4 billion for regional education infrastructure over four years has been allocated. These include allocated funding for new schools in the Hunter and the Illawarra as well as 49 new preschools in regional NSW. The breakdown of preschools is Far West (3), Riverina Murray (6), Central West and Orana (1), New England and North West (3), North Coast (4), Hunter (14), Central Coast (2), South West and Tablelands (5) and Illawarra-Shoalhaven (10).

Roads: $3.3 billion to repair roads impacted by natural disasters and $1.2 billion to continue delivering a new rail fleet to replace the ageing regional fleets.

Drinking water: $6.6 million to upgrade the Yass Valley Water Treatment Plant to improve the quality of drinking water and support up to 1580 new dwellings in Murrumbateman and Yass.

Investment property owners: Landlords, holiday homeowners and businesses will be slugged with a $1.5 billion increase in land taxes.

Mr Mookhey says the tax-free threshold for land tax will be frozen at $1.075 million.

Annual indexation in line with property price changes will stop. It is expected that the tax will capture more and more properties as a result.

Small business: There was little mention in the budget to assist retail and hospitality businesses.

Kids health: Royal Far West has been allocated half a million dollars a year for the next four years but not the "transformational change" that was hoped for with regional paediatric clinics given the miss.

Foreign investors: In a bid to make more homes available to NSW residents, the budget lifts a stamp duty surcharge paid by foreigners purchasing a home from 8 to 9 per cent from mid-2025. A foreign-owner land tax surcharge will increase, from 4 to 5 per cent.

There are an estimated 20,000 foreign-owned residential properties in NSW, around 0.6 per cent of the stock of dwellings.