Dept of Industry, Science and Resources
Albanese Pushes Faster, Easier Home Buying
Joint media release with Minister for Housing and Homelessness Clare O’Neil
The Albanese Labor Government is tackling Australia’s housing crisis, making it easier to buy, better to rent, and building more homes faster.
This Budget builds on the Government’s ambitious housing agenda, lifting total commitments in housing to $33 billion.
We know renters and first home buyers are struggling. The key to more affordable housing is boosting supply. For a generation, we have not built enough homes.
The Government will lead a national effort to speed up housing construction with a targeted investment of $54 million in advanced manufacturing of prefabricated and modular home construction.
The Government is also making it easier for first home buyers to get into the market. The income and price caps for the Help to Buy scheme will be expanded so more first home buyers will be eligible to purchase a home with a lower deposit and a smaller mortgage.
Help to Buy will support 40,000 working Australians to buy a home of their own, with the Commonwealth contributing up to 40 per cent of the purchase price through a shared equity loan.
These two announcements – faster construction and expanded home ownership support – follow other recent announcements in housing. This includes:
While Labor is building Australia’s future, the Coalition wants to delay progress.
Peter Dutton has committed to cutting $19 billion from housing and 110,000 homes if he’s elected. We can’t go back to the decade of inaction under the Coalition on housing.
$54 Million to Manufacture More Homes More Quickly
The Albanese Government will invest $49.3 million supporting state and territory governments to supercharge prefabricated and modular home construction.
States and territories will be offered funding to invest in local programs that grow the prefab and modular housing industry.
An additional $4.7 million investment to develop a voluntary national certification process for offsite construction to streamline approvals while ensuring high-quality standards are met.
Prefabricated and modular homes can be built up to 50 per cent faster than traditionally built homes.
This investment supports progress toward the Government’s national target of building 1.2 million homes in the next five years.
Together, these investments will provide the sector with regulatory certainty, create a sustainable pipeline of work, encourage private investment, and boost confidence to further develop advanced manufacturing capabilities and output.
These initiatives build on the Albanese Labor Government’s efforts to help address the national housing supply crisis.
Help to Buy Expansion
The Government will boost the Help to Buy scheme by increasing income caps from $90,000 to $100,000 for individuals and from $120,000 to $160,000 for joint applicants and single parents.
Property price caps will also be increased and linked with the average house price in each state and territory, not dwelling price, so first home buyers have more choice.
Together, these changes ensure more first home buyers will be eligible for Help to Buy, with more than 5 million properties in Australia falling under the new property price caps.
To support this expansion, the Government will increase its equity investment in the Help to Buy program from $5.5 billion to $6.3 billion – an $800 million increase.
Teachers, nurses, police officers, retail workers and those in the care sector deserve support to enter a challenging housing market – but Peter Dutton and the Greens delayed the Government’s efforts to legislate Help to Buy.
Help to Buy takes years off the time it takes to save for a deposit. And first home buyers on average rates with a $519,000 home will save about $900 per month when buying an existing home, and $1,200 per month when buying a new home.
In this term of Parliament, Labor has already helped 150,000 Australians buy a home with lower deposits. That’s more than double the number supported by the Coalition, and part of the reason there are on average 6,000 more first-home buyers a year under Labor.
Help to Buy will be open for applications later this year, following registration of the Program Directions, passage of state legislation, and implementation by Housing Australia.
New Property Price Caps by Region
*New South Wales capital city and regional centre price cap is set at $1.3 million rather than at the median house price of approximately $1.5 million to ensure purchase prices remain within the borrowing capacity of first-home buyers.
Quotes attributable to the Minister for Housing, Clare O’Neil:
“We’re tackling the housing crisis head-on by building more homes, using new technologies, and making it easier for Australians to buy them. This budget lifts our commitments in housing to $33 billion, and there’s more to come.
“We’ve got a big goal to build 1.2 million new homes in 5 years and to reach that we need to build homes in new ways – using methods like prefab we can build homes up to 50 percent faster.
“I’ve got a pretty straight-forward goal here – to make sure that ordinary, working class Australians can buy a home of their own. That’s why we’re expanding Help to Buy so that most first home buyers are eligible.
“Peter Dutton has committed to cutting $19 billion from housing and 110,000 homes if he’s elected. We can’t wind the clock back and repeat the decade of inaction seen under the Coalition.”
Quotes attributable to the Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic:
“We’re backing Aussie manufacturers to build more quality houses, faster with this investment.
“Making a house in a factory instead of onsite can cut construction time in half.
“For the first time, manufacturers and home-owners will have a national certification process to cut the red tape that has been holding back use of these techniques.
“And they will see federal and state governments working together to invest in growing our capability to make factory-built quality homes.
“That will help create a steady and predictable pipeline of demand for the industry, boosting investment in the plants and skills we need to grow those capabilities.”
https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/husic/media-releases/albanese-labor-government-building-more-homes-more-quickly-and-making-them-easier-buy