Wednesday, 28 May 2025

Ministers statements: housing

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:34): I would like to take the opportunity to update the house on how the Allan Labor government is getting millennials into homes. First, you have got to build them. It is a pretty important step. Whilst others take all measures to block development, our government’s housing and planning policies are delivering the homes that buyers and renters want to live in. It is too long to read, but we have got activity centres, the development facilitation program, the greenfields plan – the list goes on and on, and it is all about delivering the certainty required to build homes people want to live in and where they would like to raise their families.

We are making sure that homes are more affordable for Victorians to buy and rent. Our Victorian Homebuyer Fund was so popular that it is being rolled out across the country. It has helped over 13,500 Victorian households buy their own home, and it is still going strong. Our housing and planning policies are getting more and more buyers into their first home. More than 40,000 households accessed first home buyer stamp duty savings in the last year.

The Victorian budget has built on this commitment. We have invested $61 million to slash stamp duty for off-the-plan apartments, units and townhouses for another 12 months. This is cutting up-front costs, speeding up building and saving home buyers an average of $25,000. Victoria is the number one state in the country for approving and completing new homes. We are the number one for first home buyers in the country. Our housing policy is disciplined, it is effective and it builds on all of our previous work. Those opposite have only got two things in their plan: cutting services and blocking homes.