First home buyers getting bigger slice of the pie

The number of first home buyers have reached a five-year high according to housing finance data released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

According to the ABS release, this increase has been driven mainly by changes in first home buyer incentive programs in New South Wales and Victoria.

Housing Industry Association (HIA) Senior Economist, Shane Garrett, said of the increase that “first home buyer participation has been rekindled by the welcome intervention of the NSW and Victoria governments in mid-2017.

“In both states, grants to first home buyers have been increased and the concessions around stamp duty are more favourable.

“The experience of the past year proves that governments can play a very positive role in bringing home ownership within much closer reach for younger Australians.

“The upcoming round of state and territory budgets represents a big opportunity to widen First home buyer participation even further,” Mr Garrett said.

According to HIA, the Northern Territory had the highest share of first home buyers (26.8 per cent) in January 2018, followed by Western Australia (25.2 per cent), Queensland (20.5 per cent), Victoria (19.1 per cent) and the ACT (18.1 per cent).

The lowest share of first home buyers is in South Australia (13.1 per cent) followed by New South Wales (13.9 per cent) and Tasmania (14.5 per cent).

ABS January housing finance figures

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

ABS data showed that:

• “In trend terms, the number of commitments for owner occupied home loans fell 0.7% per cent in January 2018.
• In trend terms, the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings fell 1.4 per cent, the number of commitments for the purchase of established dwellings fell 0.7 per cent and the number of commitments for the construction of dwellings was flat.
• In original terms, the number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments rose to 18.0 per cent in January 2018 from 17.9 per cent in December 2017.”

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