$18bn boost to housing

HomeBuilder scheme to keep tradies flat out

A BUILDING boom across Geelong is expected in the wake of the take up of the HomeBuilder program.

The $25,000 federal government grant to owner-occupiers building homes, or undertaking substantial renovations, generated more than 21,000 Victorian applications to December 31, Treasury figures released on Wednesday show.

Housing Minister Michael Sukkar said Treasury estimated HomeBuilder would support up to $18bn in residential projects nationwide.

Villawood Properties executive director Rory Costelloe said HomeBuilder had created a “property boom” the same way the first-home buyer grant did when introduced to avert the worst impacts of the global financial crisis.

“Some of the effects have been obvious — it gave people the confidence to buy a house,” Mr Costelloe said.

“Some buyers who couldn’t get a deposit, or didn’t have enough money together, they were able to do it and I think more parents are stepping in to help (their children).”

He said HomeBuilder, along with other state and federal first-home buyer incentives, was too much to ignore.

“Particularly in Geelong. It’s pretty generous when you’re saving $12k on stamp duty and getting $20,000 for a first-home buyer grant and then another $25,000,” he said.

Mr Costelloe said the building work in the next six months would be based on the previous months’ sales.

“Builders are going to busy all this year, based on all the sales they made last year,” he said.

Core Projects data shows Geelong new land sales spiked in June with the introduction of HomeBuilder and have remained above pre-pandemic levels since.

While sales rose, the amount of stock in supply has been driven down, even with developers bringing forward new stages to support demand.

The region’s biggest estate, Warralily, was on track to record 350 sales in 2020, double the previous year.

Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn said supporting people to overcome the deposit gap was a game-changer in making home ownership available to more Australians.

“HomeBuilder has been the star in the government’s economic recovery plan since it was announced in June last year along with measures such as JobKeeper,” Ms Wawn said.

“HomeBuilder will support $18bn in new home construction and $50bn in economic activity across the wider economy.

“Without HomeBuilder, thousands of small builder and tradie businesses would have gone under and hundreds of thousands of jobs would have been lost.”