By Olivia Condous
Macedon Ranges residents with hopes to enter the property market will receive a helping hand, under federal Labor election pledge.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese announced the Regional First Home Buyer Support Scheme last week.
The new scheme, which will be created if Labor wins the federal election, will assist 10,000 Australians living in regional areas to buy their first home.
The funding boost comes after reports that housing prices in regional areas increased by 26 per cent in 2021.
A report from Infrastructure Australia found that the Grampians region had a clear shortage of affordable housing to accommodate growing demand, as an influx of remote workers moved to regional Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The support scheme will help first home buyers with a deposit of five per cent by reducing the cost of mortgage insurance.
Eligible residents need to live in a regional area for more than 12 months to receive the funding and the property price cap for regional Victoria is $500,000.
Mr Albanese said the scheme was primarily aimed at providing better access to homeownership for young people who had been saving for years.
“Too many younger Australians in particular simply can’t access the housing market to get into it, their rent is going up, they’re struggling to get by,” Mr Albanese said.
“If you’re saving to buy a home, the savings that you’re putting aside aren’t keeping up with the increase in housing costs, so you are getting further and further away from being able to buy a home.”
Opposition Housing and Homelessness spokesperson Jason Clare said the scheme will avoid the struggle that first home buyers face when affording additional home ownership costs, such as mortgage insurance.
“That awful big bill that you get when you sign a mortgage that you don’t expect, that sometimes costs as much as $20,000 or $30,000, that after you buy the house you really can’t afford to pay, this will avoid that,” Mr Clare said.
“It’s harder to buy a house today than ever before and that’s particularly the case in regional Australia,”
“This is a scheme to help more Aussies who live in the regions to buy their first home in the regions and to buy it sooner.”
