House prices won't fall if negative gearing is restricted to new properties and the capital gains discount halved, a majority of economists say.

Three-quarters of 50 economists polled by the Labor-aligned McKell Institute said house prices would continue to grow over the long term under Labor's proposal, assuming no other changes to broader market trends.

Former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser, who took part in the survey, slammed current housing tax arrangements as "manifestly unfair", saying they scored poorly on the four goals of taxation: efficient resource allocation, economic growth, price stability and fairness.

"The current negative gearing (and related capital gains) tax arrangements... divert savings and resources away from potentially more productive investments into (sometimes speculative) property investments to take advantage of the tax concessions," Mr Fraser said in a statement.