Another lunatic FHB solution

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From the ABC, the lunatics are in complete control now:

A Federal Government MP has devised a “creative” solution to the housing affordability crisis.

Andrew Broad, the Member for Mallee, wants banks to forgo a deposit from first-home buyers who have a three-year rental history.

He argued if the mortgage repayments were roughly the same as the buyer’s rent, the bank should not need security.

“I think it has serious potential,” he said.

“Essentially what a bank needs to do is see that a person has the capacity to service a loan.

“What a government needs to do is make sure a person who wants to purchase their first home can get into the property market.”

Banks and financial institutions usually require a 20 per cent deposit, which Mr Broad said was locking people out of the property market.

He said he had heard from people in his electorate who simply could not afford to save that much money.

The Prime Minister tasked the Minister Assisting the Treasurer, Michael Sukkar, to focus on housing affordability.

He has not ruled out a crackdown on capital gains tax concessions for property investors, but Labor’s policy of tackling negative gearing is off the table.

Mr Broad said he had floated his proposal as another way to make housing more affordable.

“There’s a lot of receptiveness to this,” he said.

“This is the space that creative governments can play in, rather than the very populist but unrealistic rhetoric of getting rid of negative gearing.”

“Very populist but unrealistic rhetoric of getting rid of negative gearing” versus FHB’s having no deposit, no equity, no buffer, 100% LVR and a banking system on the verge of collapse if the wind shifts direction ever so slightly and those same FHBs sink into eternal debt slavery and poverty.

Nice smile, though.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.