The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) says more assistance needs to be made available to first home buyers when the next government comes into power – and that Australia’s housing affordability issues could be resolved by taking a closer look at Singapore, from a recent article in the Australian Broker Magazine. REIA president, Peter Bushby, says the original Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) signed off in 2000 involved a commitment given by all states and parties and that many have since moved away from that initial promise. “(They) have moved away from their commitment and we’re calling on them to honour the original agreement. More than 80% of FBH go to established houses and not everybody wants a new house…. Often new house can be more expensive than established homes.” Bushby says all parties should be asked to sign-up to the IGA on Financial relations Schedule A, as soon as the next government comes into power in September. This IGA stipulates that assistance given to first home buyers will be uniform – and if this isn’t possible, then the group is calling for a new IGA to be made available for signing.

Furthermore, the REIA is pushing for the Commonwealth government to encourage young Australians to make voluntary super contributions, which can be accessed to raise a deposit for a new home – similar to the home ownership model used in Singapore. “Part of our election policy we talk about picking up on some of the accessing super schemes… the best model we see is the one in Singapore. They’ve got close to 90% home ownership in Singapore; they’ve got such a high ownership because they’ve got a …scheme in place and we’re suggesting that this could work here.”

John can be contacted on 0749722081 or 0410433919. You can also email him at jwhitten@ihl.net.au or look him up on the net www.ihl.net.au. John Whitten is a credit representative (CRN 399796) of BLASSA Pty Ltd (Australian Credit Licence No 391237).