First-home buyers face a further two-month wait for Help to Buy after coalition opposition

The proposal outlined in the bill – which has been stalled in the Senate since February – would see the government provide 10,000 first-home buyers with financial support each year.

The Help to Buy initiative is a vital cornerstone in Labor’s strategy ahead of next year’s federal election but will not be able to be reconsidered now until late November.

The Greens and coalition moved to delay a decision on the Help to Buy bill on Tuesday, though finance minister Katy Gallagher said her party “remain committed” and would continue to try to push the bill through.

PropTrack senior economist Paul Ryan said lowing the hurdle of a 20% deposit would have a meaningful impact on first-home buyers.

The growth of new buyers since the pandemic would be spurred further were the Albanese government able to get the scheme across the line, he added.

PropTrack senior economist Paul Ryan says every policy has its pros and cons.

“I would expect it to be fully subscribed, if, if it launches,” Mr Ryan told Mortgage Choice. “However, the simple fact that it will unlock more people to enter the market means we will have some impact on price.”

Prime minister Anthony Albanese is continuing to push back against this exact accusation from the coalition that the introduction of the Help to Buy scheme will further squeeze marketing pricing.

Speaking on a Cairns radio show this week, Mr Albanese reiterated that his main goal is to see more Australians on the property ladder.

“It is about making sure that people can have shared equity,” he said of Help to Buy. “Essentially if you buy a place that costs $500,000, if the Commonwealth owns $200,000 of that, then you’re paying a mortgage on $300,000 not half a million.

“That obviously means the payments are less, the deposit is less. It's an important thing to be able to provide that assistance.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says getting people on the property ladder is a 'primary concern'.Source: Getty

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has also hit out at the Greens on an ABC News interview this week after the bill was pushed down, saying the party was “behaving like Liberals and Nationals”.

“We are trying to make it easier for people on low and middle incomes to buy and the Greens and the coalition are teaming up to prevent that,” he said. “That says everything about the destructive, divise politics being played by this alliance.”

Mr Chalmers added it was “hard to tell where the Greens end and the coalition begins” on housing issues but acknowledged “politics will take care of themselves”.

“Our primary concern here is building more homes and making it easier for people to buy them,” he added.

The introduction of a Help to Buy scheme similar to what exists in the United Kingdom was a pre-election promise from the Labor Party dating back to 2022.

Leader of the opposition Peter Dutton has this week said houses “just aren’t being built” however.

Leader of the opposition Peter Dutton says the Albanese government is on the wrong track. Source: News Corp Australia

Speaking on radio yesterday, Mr Dutton firmly said the Labor government was to blame for the ongoing housing crisis.

“The government is completely on the wrong track on this issue, yet again,” he said. “This is why people are feeling it in their hip pocket at the moment.

“It's why the Reserve Bank governor is tearing her hair out at the moment, because she's saying to the prime minister, stop all of the wasteful spending in the economy, because you are just fueling inflation. That is why interest rates are staying on for longer.”

Given the current affordability environment, more consideration does need to be given to first-home buyers requiring extra support, Mr Ryan said.

“The biggest hurdle first-home buyers have to face at the moment is saving that 20% deposit. Schemes that can alleviate that requirement have been very successful.”

The number of new home loans given to first-home buyers in the July quarter this year rose 0.8% on June data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and is 12.8% higher than this time a year ago.