From Banking Day:
…For the ABS, a first-home buyer is anyone who applies for a first-home owner grant. However, several states have changed the conditions of their grants, so that only people buying newly-built properties are eligible.A first-home buyer buying an established house or unit may not be captured in the ABS data.
Mortgage Choice chief executive, Michael Russell, said: “…we are not including in the first-home buyer count those genuine first-home buyers who are electing to buy an investment property in lieu of a property owned for occupation. This is a growing trend, yet their presence as first-home buyers is not accurately recorded.
ANZ’s general manager of mortgages and deposits, Brad Gravell, said: “In the last couple of years, the movement of activity from other segments is also clouding the data. The data on first-home buyers is not necessarily absolutely correct.
“The executive director of distribution at NAB Broker, Steve Kane, said: “At auctions it is actually mums and dads investing in units for their children for 10 or 15 years time.”
These all sound like excuses to me. If FHBs are buying investment properties, or having their parents do so, then something is wrong with affordability.
