The Australian Labor Party won the federal election 2022, with Anthony Albanese leading the country in the 47th Parliament. With the RBA recently lifting its cash rate to 0.85% and record-high property prices, Labor’s campaign’s key focus has been housing affordability and home ownership.
With housing affordability as one of the biggest issues facing Australians, the Australian Labor Party has committed to bringing in a range of policies designed to improve housing affordability and ownership.
Here’s what we can expect from the new government in terms of housing
- A new Help to Buy scheme, involving an equity contribution from the Federal Government of up to 40 per cent of the purchase price of a new home (and up to a maximum of 30 percent of the purchase price for an existing home). The scheme will be eligible for 10,000 households each year. The scheme is open to Australians aged 18 and over with taxable incomes of up to $90,000 a year per individual or $120,000 a year per couple. Under Help to Buy, home buyers will only be required to have a deposit of 2 per cent (or more). They can qualify for a standard home loan with a participating lender. The scheme will not require the borrowers to pay loan mortgage insurance.
- A Regional First Home Buyer Support Scheme, which will provide a government guarantee of up to 15 percent for eligible first home buyers, so that locals with a 5 percent deposit can avoid paying mortgage insurance. Under the proposed Regional First Home Buyer Support Scheme, there will be 10,000 places each year for families in regional areas. The scheme is reserved for residents who have lived in their region for more than 12 months and are buying a home to live in. Price caps will vary depending on location.
- A $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which aims to build 30,000 new social and affordable housing properties in its first five years. Over the first 5 years, the investment returns will build around:
- 20,000 social housing properties – 4,000 of which will be allocated for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence and older women on low incomes who are at risk of homelessness.
- 10,000 affordable homes for the frontline workers like police, nurses, and cleaners who kept us safe during the pandemic. This will mean they can live closer to where they work, and it will mean better services for everyday Australians.
All these measures are designed to provide more jobs, support housing affordability and increase the chances of Australians owning a home.
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