Ministers statements: Victorian Homebuyer Fund
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:35): I would like to update the house on how the Allan Labor government’s Victorian Homebuyer Fund is giving more Victorians a chance to buy a home. The Victorian Homebuyer Fund contributes up to 25 per cent of the price of a home, or 35 per cent for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander households, and reduces the required deposit to just 5 per cent, helping buyers to avoid paying lenders mortgage insurance. The median household participating in the fund saves around $3000 per year on mortgage repayments compared to the average Victorian mortgage holder. As of April, the fund has helped over 15,000 Victorian households to buy their own home, and it is still going strong. But the biggest vote of confidence obviously is that the program is now being rolled out across the country in the form of the Commonwealth’s Help to Buy scheme. The Victorian Homebuyer Fund is scheduled to wrap up on 30 June. However, with the Commonwealth scheme not yet up and running, I am very pleased to confirm that the Victorian fund will remain open until the program’s allocation has been exhausted.
We want as many Victorians as possible to take up the opportunity to buy a home through the program and not be impacted by the gap. Victoria is number one in the country for approving and completing new homes and number one for first homebuyers, accounting for more than 30 per cent of first homebuyer loans in Australia. Our housing policies are disciplined and effective. We build homes where Victorians want to live, and we help them buy those homes. I am pleased to see the rest of Australia will soon get to benefit from a highly successful Victorian policy, once the Commonwealth scheme kicks off.