With pre-poll open and election day this Sunday, the parties have always promised a large array of housing policies. We thought we’d take the opportunity to break down what the main political parties are promising for housing.

Australian Labor Party

  • Provide $120 million from the National Productivity Fund to incentivise states to remove red tape and help more homes be built faster.
  • Introduce a 2-year ban on foreign investors buying existing homes
  • First Home Guarantee Scheme, which allows first-home buyers to purchase property with a 5 per cent deposit, rather than 20 per cent, and avoid lenders’ mortgage insurance (LMI).
  • 100,000 homes across the country built by the government, available to purchase exclusively by first home buyers.
  • Expanding its First Home Guarantee Scheme, which allows first-home buyers to purchase property with a 5 per cent deposit, rather than 20 per cent, and avoid lenders’ mortgage insurance (LMI).
  • Help to Buy scheme, through which potential purchasers receive up to 40 per cent of the price of a home through a shared equity loan scheme. They pay it back only when they sell.
  • Free TAFE and $10,000 incentive payments for apprentices in construction are helping us to build more Homes for Australians.
  • It’s Housing Australia Future Fund, dedicated to building social and affordable homes across the country.

Liberal National Party (Coalition)

  • Allowing first-home buyers to deduct interest on up to $650,000 of their mortgage payments against their income for up to five years.
  • Allowing Australians to access up to 40 per cent of their super, to a ceiling of $50,000, to buy their own home.
    Reducing the mortgage serviceability buffer to make it easier to take out home loans.
  • $5 billion investment in housing infrastructure for greenfield sites, to provide essential services like power, water and sewerage, which he says will unlock up to 500,000 new homes.

Australian Greens

  • Deliver 610,000 affordable homes over the next decade by establishing a federally owned public property developer to rent and sell homes below market prices.
  • Establishing a National Renters Protection Authority with powers to investigate breaches, issue fines, and advocate for tenants.
  • Make unlimited rent increases illegal, by freezing rents for two years then capping rent increases long term at 2% every 2 years.
  • Remove the negative gearing tax break that allows investors to deduct the costs of running a rental property—including interest on their mortgage—against their other income.