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While the state-based body has welcomed the boost to the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, chief executive Antonia Mercorella believes the promises are still lacking.
She’s raised concerns over whether the expansion of the Home Guarantee Scheme – from 20,000 to 50,000 places a year – goes far enough to have a meaningful impact.
While expressing that this budget “gets a tick of approval from us for its support for single parent families and first home buyers and its objective to encourage people to move [to] the regions”, the CEO said “it must be acknowledged that 50,000 places is not nearly enough to meet national demand”.
While highlighting the value of any budgetary measures that support first home buyers to manage the challenge of saving a significant deposit, she pointed out that “there were nearly 17,000 first home buyer loans in Queensland alone in the year to January 2022 (ABS), and 36,000 first home buyer loans in Queensland alone last financial year (boosted by the HomeBuilder Grant)”.
“You can see how 35,000 places nationally is not going to make much of a dent on demand,” she said.
The CEO has also expressed disappointment that the Regional Home Guarantee is restricted to either building or buying a newly built home.
“By doing so, it fails to recognise the entry barriers for many first home buyers, particularly for young families for whom new construction isn’t an affordable or practical option over established housing options,” she said.
From her perspective, “to have the desired impact, this initiative needs to be extended to established housing”.
“Further, when it comes [to] accessing the Regional Home Guarantee, Queensland is at a disadvantage due to our larger decentralised population.
“With a significant portion of our population living outside of our capital city, and high interstate migration to Queensland’s regions, 10,000 places is simply too low for Queensland,” she stated.
Elsewhere, the CEO raised a missed opportunity within the 2022-23 spending statement.
Ms Mercorella said that the budget “misses an opportunity to encourage older Australians to sell the family home that is now too large and move into a better-suited sized home”.
“There are thousands of under-utilised properties in Queensland and throughout Australia due to people living in their homes years longer than is suitable for their stage in life.
“High transactional costs are a key deterrent for this prolonged property hold – such as stamp duty alongside other costs associated with buying and selling, and more can be done to make downsizing a much easier financial decision for older Queenslanders, to significantly free up much-needed housing stock,” she shared.
Acknowledging housing affordability as a major motivator for voters ahead of the upcoming federal election, she did concede that Australians “can’t just rely on the federal government to tackle housing affordability”.
“That’s why the REIQ would support all levels of government working together to develop a bi-partisan plan to address housing affordability and better planning for our future housing needs,” the CEO concluded.
Read more of REB’s coverage of the 2022-23 budget here:
2022 budget: What’s in store for real estate?
Is FHLDS expansion a good idea? Eliza Owen on the ‘complex question’
Did the 2022-23 budget hit the mark for housing?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
