Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Housing. Will the minister inform the House how the Morrison government is going further in doing what works to secure our recovery by helping Australians achieve their goal of owning their own home and creating more jobs?

Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question. She is undoubtedly one of the champions of first home buyers in this House. It was great to join her at Umina Beach and Woy Woy a few weeks ago to see up close what exactly the programs delivered by the Morrison government have done for first home buyers in her electorate.

Of course, we heard already today from the Prime Minister about the success of the Home Builder program. The Home Builder program, which provided $25,000 grants for people to purchase a new home and supported one million jobs in the residential construction industry, has supported first home buyers. About 50 per cent of the people who accessed the Home Builder program were first home buyers, not, as the Leader of the Opposition suggested, people who would be investing that money in pearl taps and gold baths. There were no first home buyers, Leader of the Opposition, who were investing in pearl taps and gold baths. They were buying modest first homes.

In addition, when I was visiting the Central Coast we met people who have taken advantage of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme. In fact, I was very pleased to meet a young woman called Milwi, who had used the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme to purchase her new home with a deposit of five per cent, and hear her gratitude for the government. Not only could she buy a home with that five per cent deposit but she didn't have to pay lenders mortgage insurance, which would have been more than $10,000. What has this done? It has led to first home buyers being at the highest level for nearly 15 years. We've had 155,000 first home buyers till the end of March. When you compare it to the long-run average, it's 55 per cent higher than the 100,000 we would normally expect.

What did we see on Tuesday night? The Treasurer outline to the House how we were taking further steps to support additional first home buyers and other groups in our community who we want to support. One that was outlined on Tuesday night that I'm most proud of is the Family Home Guarantee, a government-backed program which will allow single parents—84 per cent of which are women—to purchase a home with a deposit of as little as two per cent. I must say that we have been overwhelmed by the feedback that we've received from single parents who have said: 'The deposit hurdle is the reason I have not been able to purchase a home for my family. It's the thing that has stopped me purchasing a home for my children as well.' Allowing them to now purchase a home with a deposit of only two per cent, saving on lender's mortgage insurance, we'll get even more single parents either into the market for the first time or again. We're very proud to be taking even further steps to support homeownership.