CoreLogic’s head of research, Eliza Owen, has released a note explaining the federal budget’s housing policy changes:
Housing affordability is becoming an increasing concern for first home buyers and policy makers amid recent, rapid price increases. But the double-edged sword of reducing housing values to make them more affordable, is that housing also makes up the majority of Australian household wealth; make housing more affordable for one Australian, and we risk reducing the wealth for another.
In contrast to the Labor party platform of reducing housing demand through the 2016 and 2018 elections (via reducing or removing incentives for housing investors), the federal government have utilised a different approach to boosting the rate of home ownership. They focus on increasing accessibility of mortgages, rather than risking any downward pressure on residential property prices.
