The Albanese government has followed in the footsteps of a few United Kingdom countries to offer a Shared Equity purchase model. It’s called the Help to Buy Scheme and is another support program alongside the Home Guarantee Scheme. But rather than guaranteeing the deposit, the government is giving money for equity. Here’s how it works, each region has a unique price cap and criteria.
In southeast Queensland that price cap is $1 million. It applies to new or existing homes. The buyer can’t own another property, but they don’t necessarily need to be a first home buyer. They can’t earn over $100,000 as a single or $160,000 as a couple and the government will then take up to 30 per cent of the value for existing homes or 40 per cent for new properties. So practically a buyer with a two per cent deposit could buy a $1 million property and leverage the government through this scheme to pay 30 per cent, dropping the loan amount to 68 per cent, meaning they are only repaying $680,000.
The reports I’ve read from other countries experiences suggest that theirs supported buyers who were about to buy and it didn’t generally reach those marginalised people who see purchasing as a step too far. Ideally we want more construction, not more competition for existing properties. My guess is that it will help existing purchasers to pay more or get in a little sooner but I genuinely hope it leads to more construction.
There is a bit of devil in the details, so go to your preferred loan broker for more information, I have tried to predict some questions:
Q. Who pays the rates and insurance, does the government pay their percentage?
A. No, it’s shared equity not ownership, the buyer pays all the costs.
Q. Does the buyer have to repay the government?
A. Not like a mortgage. There are no monthly repayments to the government. However, when you sell they do get their percentage of the purchase price. So if the property has gone up, they get more and if it’s gone down, they get less. (Note. If your income increases above the set levels for 2 years, you may have to pay them back).
Q. How do you work out the value if you want to start to buy back some of the government equity?
A. You need to get a valuation from an approached valuer.
*Haesley Cush is an auctioneer and co-founder of the Ray White Collective
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