Leap for home ladder as first rung in reach
FIRST home buyers have rushed to sign up to the federal government’s First Home Loan Deposit scheme, which is on track to fill fast.
Figures from the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation show more than half of the spots have filled in the second tranche, which opened in July.
About spots are pending and more than 1000 application certificates have already been approved.
Project officer Arianna Merewether, 25, and her wife Annette, 30, a childcare educator, recently bought a fourbedroom home at Sunbury, 40km northwest of Melbourne, for $542,000.
The couple saved a deposit of about 5 per cent — or $27,000 — and said the scheme had brought forward their entry to the market.
“We had been saving for a couple of years and we had been talking to a broker about trying to save 20 per cent, but saving just 5 per cent took the time to buy down by a quarter,” Arianna said. “We probably bought three years ahead of where we would have been able to buy otherwise.”
Federal Housing Minister Michael Sukkar said the scheme had allowed “Australians to get into a home of their own sooner”.
“Helping even more Australians get into their first home with a deposit of as little as 5 per cent is helping set them and their families up for a successful future,” he said.
The scheme’s requisite 5 per cent deposit means first home buyers with smaller deposits can avoid lenders’ mortgage insurance — which usually costs thousands of dollars.