Helping homebuyers secure a stake in sizzling property market

More locals enjoy a helping hand into safe and affordable housing, says Jacquie Petrusma

WHILE

Tasmania still is one of the most affordable Australian cities in which to live, the Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to ensuring home ownership continues to be affordable for Tasmanians, including those building their first home.

Tasmania enjoys a very high rate of home ownership, well above Australia’s national average, and a re-elected majority Liberal Government will sustain Tasmania’s rate of home ownership at 5 per cent above the national average.

The Tasmanian Government recognises there are still challenges faced by many. House prices are rising, and we know affordability is a concern for many people, which is why we are helping Tasmanians turn the key on their first home, whether established or a new build.

We want to help more Tasmanians enter the housing market and take advantage of the market now. That is why we have provided a range of incentives to help people build their first home because the rising housing market means Tasmanian homeowners are going to have more wealth in the future.

Our 2017-18 Budget contains a New Housing Incentive Package, which makes it easier for Tasmanians to build their own home. It includes the extension of the $20,000 First Home Owner Grant, boosted for another 12 months, as well as stamp duty reduction, and an increase in affordable housing stock.

And it is working, with first home buyers still accounting for approximately 27 per cent of all dwelling approvals in Tasmania for the 12-month period to September.

Our nation-leading $73.5 million four-year Affordable Housing Action Plan (AHAP) is already delivering its commitment to build more than 900 new homes and affordable housing options for 1600 households. At the end of the September 2017 quarter, specifically under the AHAP, we had assisted 447 new households into safe and affordable housing.

We’ve been able to help turn the dream of home ownership into a reality by reducing the initial cost of buying a house.

HomeShare, one of several government initiatives funded under the AHAP, is helping more people find a place to call home. By increasing asset and income limits as well as giving public housing tenants the opportunity to take the next step from renting to home ownership, we are bridging the deposit gap for permanent residents of Tasmania by contributing up to $59,119 towards the cost of the new home.

This has helped people like young mother Naomi and her daughter get into a lovely new home at Midway Point. HomeShare helped Naomi buy land in the location of her choice to build a new home to her specifications and budget, and join many others who are building in the area.

Naomi is one of 195 people to have been assisted into affordable home ownership

through the scheme over the past two years. By sharing ownership, low to middleincome Tasmanians may now be able to buy a house they otherwise could not afford, and that’s great news for more Tasmanians wanting their own home.

We know there is more that needs to be done which is why, in the 2017-18 Budget, the Government announced a way to address the supply side of housing availability, through more availability of suitable land for development.

The Government, across its agencies and government businesses, has significant land holdings, and Treasury is conducting a broadscale review across the whole of government to assess what land may be suitable for repurposing for housing, to increase the availability of supply to either support the Government’s Affordable Housing Strategy or to increase supply into the broader housing market.

All this is against the recession inflicted on Tasmanians by Labor, when residential property prices stagnated and went backwards. Between March 2010 and March 2014 the ABS Residential Property Price Index declined 2.1 per cent.

Property prices went backwards, and Tasmanians lost their jobs and fled the economic disaster brought about by the previous government.

In stark contrast to our professionally researched, whole-state focused, strategically planned, fullyfunded, Affordable Housing Action Plan, Labor has no plan outside a cobbled together thought bubble about Streets Ahead, which focuses only on 100 potential homeowners on the Eastern Shore.

Building more affordable housing not only helps Tasmanians in need, it generates construction jobs and supports the economy.

To ensure more people have a roof over their head is a priority for the Hodgman Government. Our target is to triple the number of houses under our Affordable Housing Strategy to 2700 homes by 2025, because we want to continue to make Tasmania an even better place to live. Jacquie Petrusma is Tasmanian Minister for Human Services.