Just when I thought the real estate market was going to slip through this election unnoticed, both parties go and announce property-related promises and drag us on to the dance floor. There are two big hurdles we need to fix. Affordability and supply. The answer lives in solving construction, the votes live in fixing the affordability.
My view is both parties are playing around with their new version of the current first-home buyers guarantee scheme. Originally rolled out under the Morrision government and continued under Labor, the scheme offers first-home buyers (FHB) a guarantee of up to 15 per cent of the property value. This means that FHB only needs to save 5 per cent, the government secures the next 15 per cent and with a total security now of 20 per cent the banks won’t charge lenders mortgage insurance (which is roughly $45,000 for every $1m purchase). Further, if Labor is re-elected they will spend $10bn building homes just for FHB. While the Coalition have said they will allow FHB to deduct the interest costs of the first $650,000 off their loan when buying a new property (saving about $12,000 a year). They are also offering FHB access to withdraw up to $50,000 from their super for their first home. Just giving FHB more money creates more competition and hence will likely push the prices up.
So spending the money and time on building new properties is the answer but it’s problematic. To build the number of properties required will take years and needs the support of a private builder. Assisting private builders by directing FHB to buy new builds is a reasonable middle ground, but is not always the most popular and both parties have danced the line in favour of affordability.
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