By leave – I begin by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people as the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, and I pay my respects to Ngunnawal Elders past, present and emerging.
Mr Speaker, Australia is in the middle of a housing crisis 40 years in the making.
For 40 years, our country has not been building enough homes. And, we’ve not been backing in our first home buyers right across the country.
Today, housing is a life‑defining challenge for millions of Australians.
We hear it from young people, who feel they will never have a chance to own their own home.
We hear it from parents, who cannot give their kids the stability they got as children.
We hear it from renters, whose rents are going up too high, and too often.
And we see it in the rising homeless population that is so evident in our suburbs and regions.
But housing is about more than the individuals affected by this problem.
Housing is the foundation on which every Australian experiences life in our country.
It defines the expectations young people have about their future, and lays bare injustice between the 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, about who gets to live a good life in our country.
And, it is about what we are all willing to do to make sure that they get it.
Like any great national challenge, changing it will fall to 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 up to the states.
Indeed, for most of the 9 years the Coalition were last in power, they didn’t even have a housing minister.
They built just 373 social and affordable homes over that entire period.
Under this Prime Minister and 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.
Our $43 billion agenda is focused on 3 things:
- building more homes
- making it better to rent
- making it easier to buy.
Since being elected, our housing policies have made a real difference to many Australians:
- over 180,000 Australians have bought their first home with our 5 per cent deposit program
- one million households have received a nearly 50 per cent rent assistance increase
- 500,000 homes have been built since we came to office, new housing approvals are up 30 per cent, and construction costs have stabilised
- we’ve got 28,000 social and affordable homes – supported by our government – in planning and construction.
We know that the long‑term solution to address the housing crisis in our country is to build, build, build.
And that’s exactly what we’re doing with the vast majority of our $43 billion plan targeted at improving supply.
Whether that’s delivering 55,000 social and affordable homes, building 100,000 homes just for first home buyers, or training more tradies.
But Australians need help now to get into a housing market that many of them feel is slipping out of reach.
Right now, young people save for years, often while renting and paying off someone else’s mortgage.
And then when they’re ready to buy a house, they get whacked with huge upfront costs like Lenders Mortgage Insurance.
Let me paint a picture of what this looks like for everyday Australians.
A 25‑year‑old student in Brisbane is renting as she finishes her studies.
She shares a dream common to millions of young Australians around the country – she wants to live independently and have a home of her own.
The problem is that unlike some of her uni mates, she doesn’t have the Bank of Mum and Dad to give her a leg up on the housing ladder.
In Brisbane, the average house price is about $1 million – which means that to buy an average house with a 20 per cent deposit, she would need to save up at least $200,000.
For the average first home buyer, it could take up to 13 years to save that much – so she may not be able to buy a home until she is 38.
If she decided to buy without a 20 per cent deposit, she’d get whacked with up to $43,000 in mortgage insurance – making a huge dent in her savings.
If she doesn’t have that money and can’t get her parents to chip in, then it’s no surprise that home ownership feels a million miles out of reach.
This is the fundamental injustice of the housing market for young people.
It gets even tougher for young families with kids.
A young working couple in Sydney have just had their second child.
They’re working hard, they’ve saved for years and put away about $180,000 for a home deposit.
That’s enough for a 20 per cent deposit on a $900,000 home.
Their dream is to buy a house big enough for their growing family, close enough to work, and near to their community.
So, like thousands of other young couples, they go house hunting.
They go to auction after auction, just to see houses blow way past their budget as investors outbid them by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In Sydney, the average house price is $1.5 million.
With a $180,000 deposit, they feel like they can’t compete.
So what can they do? Without support, their options don’t look good.
They could buy now with a smaller deposit, but they’d have to pay a hefty mortgage insurance bill of $65,000 – putting over a third of their hard‑earned savings into the pockets of insurers and eating into their deposit.
They could keep renting to try and save up for a bigger deposit – but that could take them another 5 years or more, potentially crushing their dreams of having their own home while they raise their young kids.
Or they could accept that their dream to own a house isn’t realistic – and squeeze their family into a smaller apartment that doesn’t meet their needs, in a suburb they don’t want to live in, with a long and costly commute to work.
Thanks to a decade of inaction, these stories are far too common.
These Australians cannot wait for new supply to come online – they need help to buy their own home right now.
This is why I am so proud to inform the House that the Prime Minister and I have announced that this government is bringing the dream of home ownership within reach for tens of thousands of Australians.
From 1 October this year, the days of the 20 per cent deposit are over.
The Albanese government is delivering on its commitment to give all first home buyers the opportunity to buy a home with only a 5 per cent deposit.
And we’re doing it 3 months ahead of schedule.
Meaning that more Australians can get into a home of their own, sooner.
Because this government is unequivocally and unashamedly on the side of people looking to get into their own home, and we’re backing them in with our 5 per cent deposit scheme.
There will be 3 big changes to the 5 per cent deposit scheme.
First, there will be no caps on places.
This means that there is now no limit on the number of first home buyers who can buy a home with Commonwealth government support.
It means that regional Australians and single parents – who previously had limited places under the scheme – now have unlimited access.
Second, we’re removing income caps.
This means that hard‑working first home buyers and families who were previously locked out of the scheme can now get more support.
Third, we’re increasing property price caps so that they are in line with average house prices – not just small apartments, units, or homes in hard‑to‑reach locations.
This means that first home buyers have more choice, and more first home buyers can buy a home that meets their needs.
These changes aim to change what home ownership looks like for a generation of younger Australians.
The median home price in Australia today is $844,000. Five per cent of that is about $42,000.
The last time $42,000 covered the 20 per cent deposit for a median home was 2002 – more than 20 years ago.
That shows you the scale of this change.
And not only are we 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 the scheme are expected to avoid around $1.5 billion in potential mortgage insurance costs.
What a game changer.
Our government’s 5 per cent deposit scheme is already changing lives for hundreds of thousands of first home buyers across the country.
On average, there are 6,000 more first home buyer loans a year under our government compared to the Coalition’s previous period in office.
Since coming to office, our government has helped over 180,000 first home buyers buy a home with lower deposits.
On Monday, the Prime Minister and I visited 2 of these buyers 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 only a 5 per cent deposit.
When I met Lachie and Abbey, they told me how they’d never have been able to buy without support from our government.
And now, they’re able to host their mates for movie nights in their very own place.
It worked so well for them that a friend has now used the scheme to buy across the road and their other friends are looking at using the program as well.
This expansion of our 5 per cent deposit scheme will mean that even more Australians can own their own place – just like Lachie and Abbey – from 1 October.
Mr Speaker, it’s thanks to every 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 the 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 only $25,000 – saving up to $15,000 in mortgage insurance and up to $80,000 in potential rent payments.
Take the Member for Bendigo, who has been an outstanding advocate for social and affordable homes in our regions.
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 the average $620,000 house with a deposit of only $31,000 – taking 6 years off the time it takes for them to save for a deposit and saving $26,000 in mortgage insurance.
Mr Speaker, you might think that the Opposition would get behind a policy that helps young Australians have a fighting chance in the housing market.
But they didn’t.
In fact, the Shadow Housing Minister called this announcement ‘bizarre and ridiculous’.
There’s nothing ‘bizarre and ridiculous’ about helping Australians into home ownership.
Now the Coalition has a clear choice – be part of the solution this term or keep doing nothing.
The Coalition have a new leader in the Member for Farrer – and a new opportunity to work with the government on housing.
I’ve said time and time again: our door is open to the Coalition on housing, as it is to all our parliamentary colleagues.
While those opposite may continue to be blockers, we’re getting on with the job.
This term we will:
- Make it better to rent – we’ll help thousands more rental homes be built through our Build to Rent scheme and continue to lift rental standards through our work with the states and territories.
- Make it easier to buy – we’ll implement Help to Buy, our first ever national shared equity scheme, in addition to the expansion of our 5 per cent deposit scheme.
- And, of course, we know that the main way to make housing more affordable is to build, build, build.
Which is why we’ll build more homes – we’ll continue on the path to building 55,000 social and affordable homes, as well as building 100,000 homes for first home buyers.
And, we are working with states and territories towards a bold national aspiration for Australia to build 1.2 million homes in 5 years.
Mr Speaker, this government is getting on with the job.
We’re building more homes. We’re making it better to rent. And easier to buy.