New apartment and housing construction will receive an important boost after the Morrison Government announced a targeted extension to the First ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Loan Deposit Scheme.
The Government will release an additional 10,000 places under the scheme, earmarked solely for newly constructed dwellings, with amended scheme rules and increased price caps to ensure the scheme boosts apartment sales as well as detached housing.
The move has been warmly welcomed by the Property Council of Australia which has been a strong advocate for these changes since the inception of the scheme.
“This announcement delivers a double dividend – 10,000 first home buyers get support to enter the market, and that boosts construction activity and jobs that the economy needs,” said Property Council of Australia Chief Executive Ken Morrison.
“This is particularly welcome news for apartment construction which has been hit especially hard by the impacts of the pandemic.
“Apartment approvals fell 11 per cent in August and 18 per cent for the year, so anything that supports jobs and activity in this sector is very welcome.
“Today’s announcement will add stimulus to an important part of the market that has not yet benefited from previous support packages.
“We congratulate Treasurer Frydenberg and Minister Sukkar for delivering this important extension and enhancement of the scheme.”
While both the original First ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Loan Deposit Scheme and the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾Builder scheme have been strongly welcomed by the property industry, neither scheme accommodated off-the-plan apartment purchasers in their design.
The extended First ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Loan Deposit Scheme will enable qualified first home buyers to be allocated a guarantee at the time a contract is exchanged for an off-the-plan purchase, providing certainty for the purchaser.
“It is very pleasing that the Government has solved this challenge for off-the-plan apartment purchases and we encourage them to apply this solution to the highly successful ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾Builder scheme,” Mr Morrison said.
