MP's housing claim on ABC raises eyebrows as 'help to buy' looms

A major election promise of the Albanese government is due to kick in this year, making it easier for struggling renters to buy their first home. But one man who could stand in the way of the policy has rubbished it while appearing on ABC's Insiders program on Sunday morning.

Promised by Labor ahead of the 2022 election, the prime minister used an August speech at the party's national conference to proclaim the scheme will commence in the first half of this year, after undertaking negotiations with state premiers and chief ministers.

Under the program, the government would contribute up to 40 per cent of the value of a home for a new property or 30 per cent for an existing one for a first home buyer as part of a shared equity scheme. As a result, home buyers would then be able to contribute as little as two per cent for a deposit.

It still requires the passage of legislation, meaning the government will need the support of the Greens to move forward with the idea. But the party's housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather has taken a swipe at the scheme this morning, saying it "screws over the vast majority".

"The government scheme would only help 0.2 per cent of renters buy a home every year, and for the other 99.8 per cent of renters in this country, it will actually drive up prices," he said.

"It screws over the vast majority of people, and frankly, I don't think Australians should have to win this bizarre lottery, where you've got just a 0.2 per cent chance of winning, just to get an affordable home."

While Mr Chandler-Mather expressed criticism of the 'help to buy' policy, he conceded the party was still up for talks with the government on the issue.

Read more: Help to Buy scheme explained – who is eligible for 'life-changing' leg up

"There'll be a broad net-positive if we can negotiate a phase out of tax handouts to property investors, get a cap on rent increases and build public housing," he said.

"If we have to negotiate with the government to get through their little scheme, that will have an inflationary impact on house prices, but on the other we can get through the changes to capital gains, tax concession and negative gearing, then overall that would be a good thing."

'We have enough homes', Greens MP says

It was one particular claim from Chandler-Mather that had some on social media talking, as the housing spokesperson suggested a lack of supply was not exactly an issue in the housing crisis.

"What we know is there was a million vacant properties on the night of the Census in 2021. I want to be clear, we have enough homes for people to live in," he said.

The Greens MP made the comment in response to a question about the role high immigration has had on home prices, which he said was "a distraction".

"We have enough construction materials to build the homes for the new people coming to this country," he said. "We don't have the political will to take on a housing system of property developers who restrict supply to make money for themselves and treat housing as a huge speculative asset."

While he called for more social housing to be built with the money saved by removing tax handouts to property investors, political opponents seized on the claim that we have enough homes, with Labor minister Murray Watt calling it "extraordinary".

Economist and Yahoo Finance contributor Stephen Koukoulas was among those to criticise the assertion that Australia has enough housing stock, taking to social media after the Insiders interview to rebuke the claim that the country has a million empty homes, telling the MP to "do a little bit of homework".

"Almost half of the vacant properties were vacant because people were either away for work of they were having a holiday," he said. "Can't imagine how that feeds into the supply of housing."

The Greens had called for negative gearing to be grandfathered out ahead of the 2022 federal election, with it being phased out over five years and people only allowed to apply the measure to one investment property. The current Labor government has come under pressure to examine changes to negative gearing following its policy reversal on changes to stage three tax cuts.

For his part, Chandler-Mather complained that Australia's laws, changed under the Howard government, enable property investors to "hoard homes that could go to first home buyers" and even argued a removal of negative gearing may lead to a reduction in rental prices.

"There may actually be downward pressure on rents because one of the things these tax handouts in combination have done, including the capital gains discount, is deprive a lot of renters the chance to buy a home," he said.

"If those changes hadn't happened, we'd have an extra 400,000 renters who could have bought a home."

with AAP

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