Close, but no cigar. Unless you're a real estate agent that is. Or a landlord, or a property developer, in which case a whole box of cigars might be in order. Who knows, you might even get away with charging the purchase price against the unit's rental income?

It was nearly different.

In the presumed security of razor gang deliberations, it seems, Malcolm Turnbull and his team went tantalisingly close to alchemising two metals rarely seen in Canberra these days: political courage, and policy heft.

The result would have brought the short term discomfort of a significant backdown, through cutting the 50 per cent capital gains tax concession, but also perhaps, kudos for arriving at a sensible policy change.