Treasurer Scott Morrison hits the home front with stamp duty calls for states

TREASURER Scott Morrison says housing affordability is a complex issue and the Turnbull government intends to spend a lot of time getting the right policies in place.

Treasure Scott Morrison. Picture: Adam Yip/ The Daily Telegraph

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TREASURER Scott Morrison says housing affordability is a complex issue and the Turnbull government intends to spend a lot of time getting the right policies in place.

“We are not going to go off on one-issue solutions,” the treasurer told Sydney’s 2GB radio on Monday, ahead of delivering a lunchtime address to the Urban Development Institute lunch.

He will push the states to make buying a new home more attainable, conceding that the great Australian dream is increasingly unaffordable. While it has always been hard to buy a house, Mr Morrison concedes it is even harder now.

“While the majority of Australians live in a home that is either owned or being purchased by their household, for each new generation this aspiration is proving more and more difficult to realise,” he says.

Mr Morrison foreshadowed discussions with state treasurers at a meeting in December.

“State governments cannot do much about the physical geography occupied by our cities, (but) they could do a great deal to improve planning processes and the provision of infrastructure,” he says.

Treasury Secretary John Fraser warned Australia’s younger generation were more reliant on mum and dad to get into the property market than ever before. Picture Kym Smith

Treasurer Scott Morrison will today call on the states to slash stamp duty and fast track housing development approvals to increase the flow of housing.

Labor frontbencher Michelle Rowland said the treasurer was “stating the bleeding obvious”.

“It’s been a significant issue for a very long time, which is why Labor has been soundly prosecuting the case for reform in this area, ” she told Sky News.

Her Labor colleague Jenny Macklin accused the treasurer of being “asleep for the last couple of years”, calling on him to adopt Labor’s proposed changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.

But Mr Morrison said Labor’s plans were ill-considered and crashing the economy was not the way to make to make housing affordable.

Mr Morrison will flag more incentives for state governments to reform planning laws and release more land.

Arguing housing affordability isn’t just an issue for home buyers, the treasurer will warn it’s also putting more pressure on the private rental market and ultimately social housing.

Land for sale on Balmoral Rd, Kellyville which has been identified as a major growth area.

The challenge of not being able to find a secure and affordable home has other flow-on effects, impacting health, education outcomes and workforce participation.

His keynote speech to the Urban Development Institute in Sydney outlines the need to cut red tape to increase supply and make it easier for Aussies to buy their first home.

The speech comes after Treasury boss John Fraser last week said “the bank of mum and dad” had become almost essential for the younger generation to enter the market.

Mr Morrison, who acknowledges home ownership is becoming a distant dream for many, argues it is critical to work with state governments to cut the time it is taking for developers to get approval for residential constructions.

“The market is getting away from people. No matter how hard they work or save or even earn, they are finding it harder and harder to get into the market,’’ Mr Morrison says.

He said a critical component of reducing the housing bubble was to create a greater supply of housing rather than pressure the market to decline.

“The government will therefore also be discussing with the states the potential to remove residential land-use planning regulations that unnecessarily impede housing supply and are not in the broader public interest.

“They could do a great deal to improve planning processes and the provision of infrastructure.

“More needs to be done to ensure that supply increases more broadly — both in terms of location and type of dwelling — and that the roadblocks to this increased supply are removed.”

Mr Morrison said the soaring increase in mortgages meant many people were being forced to use their superannuation to pay off their home.

“It’s taking longer for people to own their own home and be free of their mortgage,’’ he said.

“This trend has the potential to undermine retirement incomes, with superannuation cashed in on retirement to clear the mortgage or having mortgage costs eating into retirement income or undermining their ability to save more as they approach retirement.”

Roselynne and Clayton Bugeja with Joshua, 5, and Bella, 4, at their block of land in Kellyville. New figures, to be released today, show the number of first homebuyer mortgages is declining.

The Treasurer revealed the number of mortgages for first home buyers is declining — a sign young Australians are finding it too hard to get into the market.

“The proportion of home loans that are being provided to first home buyers was 13.4 per cent in August 2016, the lowest point since February 2004 and well below its long-term average of 19.4 per cent.”

Mr Morrison, who has long been a critic of Labor’s limiting gearing policy, told the luncheon that limiting negative gearing to new homes is not the right approach because it would reduce the number of buyers.