ScoMo unveils homebuyer super scheme

FIRST-HOME buyers would be able to access their retirement nest egg in order to break into the property market should the government be reelected, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pledged.

The policy – the headline announcement of a rather tepid Coalition launch – would allow first-home buyers to withdraw up to $50,000 or 40 per cent of their super balance to get into the market if they had already saved up a 5 per cent deposit.

The scheme, known as the Super Home Buying Scheme, has been criticised by economists, finance peak bodies, the property council and industry super Australia.

Labor has also panned the policy, saying it would cause housing to become less achievable. But the Coalition has pointed to a scheme Labor’s Paul Keating took to the 1993 election then ditched, in which people could access 75 per cent or $10,000 of their superannuation to buy a home, as long as the amount came up to less than half the price of the property.

The Coalition’s scheme will apply to new and existing homes, with the invested amount to be returned to superannuation funds when the house was sold, including a share of any capital gain.

Mr Morrison said the scheme “gets the balance right” to “transform” a family’s life but also return the money to the retirement nest egg when sold.

Economist Saul Eslake skewered the scheme as one that would inflate house prices and “do nothing to increase home ownership”.