Catherine Murphy:
The federal government’s Help to Buy Scheme for first home buyers starts next week, and the Housing Minister, Clare O’Neil, joins us now in the studio. Clare, thanks for joining us on such a busy week.
Clare O’Neil:
It has been a huge week, last sitting week for the year, but I’m thrilled to be here this morning talking about our government’s support for home ownership.
Murphy:
Let’s talk about those environment laws and the changes that were passed. When will they make a real difference to housing targets?
O’Neil:
Well, they’re going to make a really significant difference over time. One of the things that’s been not working with our environment laws is we’ve had these laws that aren’t supporting nature protection in Australia, but are also holding up critical projects like big housing developments and renewables projects that are really needed by the country.
So in answer to your question, the effect is going to be basically immediate because we are already working on a fast‑track process for housing through environmental protections, but as the changes in the laws come into effect in 2026 and 2027 basically housing will have a permanent fast track.
We’re talking about big housing developments that will go from taking years to approve down to months and sometimes even weeks. So this is really important reform that’s being delivered by our government this week.
James Glenday:
You’ve been focusing a lot on Help to Buy, you’ve been focusing on the environment laws. It’s interesting to see the banking regulator jump in yesterday and put these limits around high‑risk housing loans. Is that a good move, in your view? And do you think there are risks at the moment in the housing market?
O’Neil:
Look, I’m really supportive of what APRA’s done here. What we’re seeing in the last 6 month is fairly significant increases in investors who are often owning multiple properties at quite high debt to income ratios. So APRA is sort of stepping in and saying they’re not concerned about the market at the moment, but they just want to put a signal out to say they don’t want to see consistent ongoing and fast growth in that kind of lending.
Glenday:
They’re competing, in many instances against first home buyers. Are you worried at all that this move by APRA could limit the number of first home buyers who are taking advantage of your 5 per cent Deposit Scheme, cause maybe the banks will look at that, and go gee, that’s a pretty big debt to asset ratio as well?
O’Neil:
So the 5 per cent Deposit Scheme is where the government supports first home buyers to get into their home with a lower deposit. The government hasn’t changed anything about the serviceability requirements. So a lender – a borrower – still has to go through the same checks with the bank and to make sure that they can actually service a mortgage, and none of that has changed. So really, this is about principally the concern that APRA has about investors and making sure that overall risk is managed.
But I should say these are, you know, very much pre‑emptive things that – there’s nothing in the economy now that APRA is deeply concerned about, they’re really just saying for the future they don’t want to see significant growth.
Murphy:
These APRA changes don’t come in until February 1st. For first home buyers who are desperate to take advantage of the scheme, there’s now 2 months more where investors can flood the market. Is that concerning to you that the actual number of houses for first home buyers to look at will be drastically reduced by then?
O’Neil:
The most important thing the government can do right now is provide as much support to first home buyers as we can, while we continue that task of rebuilding our housing stock in our country.
I know it’s a little bit hard for people to understand, but all the problems we’re facing with housing in Australia really come back to the fact that we haven’t been building enough homes for 40 years, and our government is working very hard to address that.
In the meantime we strongly believe that young people around this country face a great injustice when they look at our housing system. And that’s why our government’s jumping in and saying for the first home buyers of this country, ‘We want to back you and support you when you’re going to auctions’.
So we’ve had the expansion of the 5 per cent deposit program which I launched on 1 October. On 5 December, we’ll start this new program, which is actually much more intensive support for 10,000 key workers, nurses, aged care workers, teachers, to help them get that opportunity of first home ownership.
Glenday:
Very broad question, we’ve had a lot of conversations about all sorts of things, with the housing market and negative gearing and the rest of it. I mean is housing in Australia a place for people to live, or is it an investment asset? Maybe you say the answer is both, but there are a lot of calls to do more to curb investor lending so that you really take the heat out of the market?
O’Neil:
Look, I mean the most important thing is that we’ve got to have a housing system that works for Australians. And that means that everyone’s got a roof over their head, and we support young people to have good opportunities for home ownership.
This has always been a feature of life in Australia, that ordinary people on modest incomes have been able to get into home ownership. That’s what the government’s fiercely trying to restore through programs like the 5 per cent deposit program, which is, you know, getting great take‑up from young people, but also through Help to Buy, which is launching on 5 December.
So I think the answer to your question’s reflected in what the government’s doing. We’re in the market and we are trying to help young people get that leg up and get into their first home.
Glenday:
Very briefly, before we let you go, Barnaby Joyce, I mean, I’m sure you’re not unhappy about the Coalition tearing itself apart. What would it mean though if someone who had the stature as a former Deputy Prime Minister then joined a party like One Nation? ‘Cause whatever you think of him, there are some people in Australia who obviously have supported him intensely in the past.
O’Neil:
Yeah. Look, you know, I might let the Liberals and the Nationals get into this business. But I would just say, James, you know, you look at the parliament this week; our governments delivered massive reforms for environment laws, we’ve just funded 21,000 new social and affordable homes, Jason Clare’s rolled out 20 per cent student debt reduction for 3 million Australians.
We’re focused on delivery, and the Coalition are, I think a bit of a bin fire for anyone who’s been watching, but I’ll leave to them to sort of justify their focus. We’re focused on Australians and going into what is, you know, a Christmas with a lot of challenges for families, we’re doing everything we can to support them and help them.
Murphy:
Clare O’Neil, thank you for coming into the studio this morning. Enjoy the rest of your Friday.
O’Neil:
You, too, guys. Thanks so much.