Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Hansard source

I ask leave of the House to make a ministerial statement relating to five per cent deposits for all first home buyers.

Leave granted.

I begin by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people as the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. I pay my respects to Ngunnawal elders past, present and emerging. And, as always in this housing conversation of ours, I acknowledge that, for all the challenges that we face as a country, our First Nations brothers and sisters face particular issues with housing, and that's something that our government is fiercely committed to tackling.

Australia is in the middle of a housing crisis that's been 40 years in the making. For 40 years, our country has not been building enough homes and we've not been backing in first home buyers right across the nation.

And so today, housing is a life-defining challenge for millions of people who live in our country. We hear it from young people, who feel they will never have the chance to own their own home. We hear it from parents, who feel such guilt that they are not going to be able to give their children the stability that they received in their childhood. We hear it from renters, whose rents are going up too high and too often. And, Deputy Speaker Young, we see it in that rising population of homeless Australians who I see in my suburb and you would see in yours.

But housing is about even more than the individuals who are affected by this problem. Housing is the foundation on which every Australian experiences life in our country. It defines the expectations that young people have about their future, and it lays bare the injustice between generations. Housing is about how invested our citizens feel in their democracy, and whether they feel stability, and confidence, as they move through their lives. Housing is about what it means to be Australian and who gets to live a good life in our country. And it's about what we, in this chamber, are willing to do to make sure that they get it.

Now, like any great national challenge, changing it is going to fall on our party. Housing is the Labor project of our generation.

For a long time, the Commonwealth government had tapped out of our national housing challenge, leaving the hard work of this problem up to the states. And indeed, for most of the nine years that the coalition were in power in our country, they didn't even have a housing minister. Deputy Speaker, you're not going to believe this, but, during those nine years, those opposite built 373 social and affordable homes. That is a national disgrace.

Now, under this Prime Minister and under our Labor government, we've made a big switch. We're tackling the housing crisis from every angle. Our government is the boldest and most ambitious Australian government on housing since the post-war period. We've got a $43 billion agenda, and it's focused on three things: (1) building more homes; (2) making renters get a better deal; and (3) getting more Australians into homeownership.

Since we were elected, our policies have made a real difference to many people around our country:

Now, we know that the long-term solution to our nation's housing problems is to build, build, build. And that's exactly why the majority of that $43 billion that we are spending on housing is targeted at improving supply, whether it's delivering our 55,000 social and affordable homes, whether it's building those 100,000 homes that we will reserve just for first home buyers or whether it's training more tradies.

But we know that Australians need help to get into the housing market now, and so many young people around our country in particular feel that this is slipping out of reach. Right now, young people are saving for years. They are often stuck in a rent trap, paying off someone else's mortgage. Then, when they are ready to buy a house after those long years of savings, they get whacked with huge upfront costs like lenders mortgage insurance.

Let me paint a picture of what this looks like for a young person living in Brisbane. We might have a young person, a 25-year-old, who has just finished their studies and renting as they begin their life working. This young person might share a dream that's common to millions of people around our country and that is to get into a home of her own. The problem is that, unlike some of her uni mates, this young person doesn't have the bank of mum and dad to give her a leg up on the housing ladder. In Brisbane today, the average house price is about a million dollars, which means that, to buy an average house with a 20 per cent deposit, she would have to save up $200,000. For the average first home buyer it would take more than 13 years to save up that much money. We're talking about a young person who is going to be saving and renting until she's 38 years old. If she decides to buy without a 20 per cent deposit, she's going to get whacked with mortgage insurance—paying up to $43,000 just for mortgage insurance for that first home. If she does haven't that money, and she can't get her parents to chip in, then she's probably one of the many young people around our country who feel that homeownership is a million miles out of reach.

It gets even tougher for young families who are dealing with kids. Families who have got kids—they've worked hard and they've saved for years. They might have put away $180,000 for a home deposit. That's enough for a 20 per cent deposit on a $900, 000 home. They might dream to buy a house big enough for a growing family, close to work and near their communities, so they go house hunting and to auction after auction. We hear it from our constituents—the heartbreak of going weekend after weekend to auctions, just to see houses blow way past their budget as investors outbid them by hundreds of thousands of dollars. We know that in Sydney today the average house price is $1.5 million. With $180,000 these young people still can't compete. So what can they do without support? Their options just don't look good.

These are the Australians that our Labor government was elected to this parliament to serve. That is why we made such an important announcement this week, which is going to help the people who I've referred to. This week the Prime Minister and I announced that our government is bringing the dream of homeownership back within reach for tens of thousands of Australians every single year. From 1 October this year, the days of 20 per cent deposits for first home buyers will be over. The Albanese government is delivering on its commitment to give all first home buyers the opportunity to buy a home with just a five per cent deposit, and it's not just that. We're doing it three months ahead of schedule. We're doing it three months ahead of schedule because we can provide that help more quickly and, if we can, we should. Our government is unequivocally and unashamedly on the side of people looking to get into their first home, and we're backing them all the way with our five per cent deposit scheme.

There are going to be three changes that come in for this scheme on 1 October. The first is that, for the first time, there will be no caps on this scheme. That means that there is no limit to the number of first home buyers who can now buy a home with Commonwealth government support. It means that for our regional Australians and for our single parents, who previously had limited places under this scheme, they now have unlimited access to this program. Second, we are removing income caps. That means that hardworking first home buyers and families who were previously locked out of this scheme, for the first time, will be eligible to get support. Third, we're increasing property price caps so they're in line with average house prices. It means that this is not just about small apartments, units or homes in hard-to-reach locations but about the average home in our capital cities and our regions.

These changes are important. They aim to change what homeownership looks like for an entire generation of young Australians. The median house price in Australia today is $844,000. Five per cent of that is about $42,000. The last time that $42,000 covered a 20 per cent deposit for a median home was in 2002—more than 20 years ago. This shows you the scale of the change we are making here. We are not only helping first home buyers get into a home earlier; we're helping them save billions of dollars. In the first year alone, first home buyers using this scheme are expected to avoid $1.5 billion in potential mortgage insurance costs. This is a game changer.

Our government's five per cent deposit program is already changing lives for hundreds of thousands of first home buyers around the country. And the proof's in the pudding. We're really proud, because in our first term there were 6,000 more first-home-buyer loans each year compared to the coalition's previous period in office. We've already lifted support and we're already seeing those first-homeowner numbers lift.

Since coming to office, our government has helped over 180,000 first home buyers buy with a lower deposit. On Monday, the Prime Minister, the member for Canberra and I were lucky to visit two of these buyers, who are right here in Canberra—Lachie and Abbey. With the government's support, Lachie, Abbey and Chilli the dog have been able to buy a townhouse in Lawson with just a five per cent deposit.

Meeting Lachie and Abbey was just amazing, because we sat down with this fantastic young couple and we heard straight from them how they would never have been able to buy their home without the support of our government. And they talked about the simple pleasures that they are getting to enjoy as homeowners, that feeling of knowing that they can't be moved on, of having their friends around for movie nights, of thinking about starting a family down the track. It's worked so well for them that a friend has now used the scheme to buy a house across the road, and other friends are looking to use the program as well. Well, the expansion of the five per cent deposit scheme will mean that even more Australians can get a place of their own—just like Lachie and Abbey—from 1 October.

It's thanks to every single member on this side of the House that our government can make this a reality. Take the members for Solomon and Braddon, who represent first home buyers at the northern and southern ends of our country. In both Devonport and Darwin, a first home buyer can now buy a $500,000 home with a deposit of $25,000. They'll save up to $15,000 in mortgage insurance and up to $80,000 that they would have paid in potential rents while they were saving for their first home.

Take the member for Bendigo, who has been an absolutely outstanding advocate for the young people in her community who want better housing opportunities. Our government has already helped 1,100 first home buyers to buy a home in Bendigo with a lower deposit. A first home buyer in Bendigo can now buy an average $620,000 home with a deposit of $31,000. This takes six years off the time it takes for them to save a deposit, and they'll save $26,000 in mortgage insurance. I talk to young people who have used this program. Six years—it changes their life. This reshapes the experience of their 20s and 30s and gives them the opportunity to set down the roots and get them those better opportunities we want them to see.

Deputy Speaker Young, you might think that the opposition would get behind a policy like this, because it helps give young Australians a fighting chance in the housing market. But they didn't. In fact, you're not going to believe this: the shadow housing minister called this announcement 'bizarre and ridiculous'. There is nothing 'bizarre and ridiculous' about helping first home buyers around this country get into their own home.

Now the coalition has a really clear choice here. They can be a part of the solution this term or they can keep doing nothing. We've got a new Leader of the Liberal Party in Canberra. We've got a new opportunity for those opposite to work with the government on housing. And I've said time and time again, in the last parliament, and I'll continue to say it in this one: our door is open to work with the coalition on housing, as it is to all our parliamentary colleagues.

While those opposite might continue to block and delay progress on housing, we're getting on with the job. This term we're going to:

And, of course, we know the main issue here is we've got to build, build, build, and that's exactly the work our government's doing.

Our government's getting on with the job. We're building more homes. We're making it better to rent. And, yes, we're making it easier to buy.

I present the Housing Australia Investment Mandate Amendment (Delivering on Our 2025 Election Commitment) Direction 2025 and a copy of my ministerial statement.

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