Australian PM pledges $6.29B for first-time home buyers
SYDNEY—Australia’s government said on Sunday it would spend $6.29 billion on grants and loans to build up to 100,000 homes to help would-be home buyers get on the property ladder, ahead of a May 3 general election that has housing affordability as a key issue.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-Left Labor government, neck-and-neck with the opposition Liberal-National coalition ahead of the national vote, has pledged to build 1.2 million homes by 2030 to ease cost pressures in Australia, where many are dissatisfied with a lack of affordable housing.
The government, ahead of its campaign launch in Western Australia state capital Perth on Sunday, said if reelected it would partner with state developers and industry to roll out the home-building plan reserved for first home buyers “to give them a fair go at owning their own home.”
Loan guarantee
Additionally, the government said it would guarantee a portion of a first home buyer’s home loan, allowing them to buy a home with a 5-percent deposit.
“This will help people buy their first home faster, without paying the burden of Lenders Mortgage Insurance,” Albanese said in a statement.
Liberal leader Peter Dutton, a former police officer and the defense minister in the last Liberal-National government, has also been campaigning on the nation’s so-called housing crisis.
