1100+ new home owners mark regional scheme’s success

Hundreds of Australians are starting 2023 in new homes having taken part in the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, launched late last year - brought forward by the federal government.

Three months after the Guarantee’s launch on 1 October 2022, almost 1,200 Australians have already been able to purchase a new home in regional Australia with help from the government scheme.

The Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee (RFHBG) provides a government guarantee of up to 15 per cent for eligible first home buyers, so regional Australians with a deposit of “as little as 5 per cent” can avoid paying lenders’ mortgage insurance, the government has stated.

The government “delivered the commitment” three months early to help more Australians into a home, it explained, as this “targeted support” assists regional Australians into home ownership sooner and helps with the cost of living.

Australians living in regional areas have faced some of the largest drops in housing affordability, making it increasingly hard for locals to save a sufficient deposit, the government outlined.

The RFHBG is just one part of the Albanese Government’s housing reform agenda, it confirmed.

Last month it released draft legislation to establish the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, Housing Australia and the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council.

Returns from the Housing Australia Future Fund will deliver the Government’s commitment of 30,000 new social and affordable homes in the fund’s first five years - including 4,000 homes for women and children impacted by family and domestic violence or older women at risk of homelessness – it has explained.

An interim National Housing Supply and Affordability Council commenced on 1 January to start delivering immediate advice to government and is intended to operate until the council is established permanently in legislation, the federal government confirmed.

Housing issue on government’s radar

In similar news, only recently did federal and South Australia state governments jointly announce a $70 million partnership to deliver affordable housing on Adelaide’s city-fringe.

Announced by minister for Housing, minister for Homelessness, minister for Small Business Julie Collins MP and South Australian human services minister Nat Cook MP, the 130-plus apartment ‘Build to Rent’ project will deliver an increase in social housing plus dozens of affordable rentals for key workers including nurses, police and ambulance officers, they explained.

Situated at Park Court, on Greenhill Road at Eastwood - the former site of 29 public housing homes - the “prime location” is next door to the Air Apartments, across the road from the southern parklands and gives easy access to the city, hills and suburbs, the ministers outlined.

The project will be supported by up to $50 million in grants and loans from the Commonwealth’s National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) along with around $15 million in land and grants from the SA Housing Authority.

The new development will deliver between 30 and 50 social housing properties with income-based rents to help people on low and fixed incomes, they confirmed.

Other apartments, featuring a mix of one, two and three-bedrooms, will include homes rented at 25 per cent below market rates with a focus on key workers.

Previous tenants have been relocated to new homes and the site is ready for demolition works and construction.

[Related: Young Aussies still hopeful in owning homes despite economic pressures]