South Australia’s first homebuyer grants hit seven year high

The government says new figures show the state’s property market is booming but Labor insists the real story is less impressive.

South Australia is experiencing a surge in first home buyers with figures for this financial year already eclipsing those for the whole of 2019/20.

However, the Opposition says the increase is meagre and shows that not enough is being done to improve housing affordability.

With almost two months of 2020/21 remaining, figures show 3258 people have received the State Government’s $15,000 First Homeowner Grant so far this financial year.

This is up from 3128 for all of 2019/20, and 2828 in the previous year. In 2017/18, there were 2927 grant recipients.

The 5251 postcode, which includes Mount Barker, Wistow and Bugle Ranges, tops the list so far for the most First Home Owner Grant recipients (211).

SA Treasurer Rob Lucas. Picture: Emma Brasier

The 5085 postcode, which includes Lightsview, Enfield and Northgate, was the second more popular area for first home buyers, recording 156 grant recipients.

Munno Para and Munno Para West recorded 116 recipients while Seaford, Seaford Rise and Moana had 108 recipients.

Treasurer Rob Lucas said so far this calendar year, 1453 South Australians had received the grant – making it the best start to a year in seven years.

He said the figures were evidence of the state’s strong ongoing economic and jobs recovery from COVID-19.

“We know South Australia is experiencing a massive housing and construction boom, which is great for local jobs, and it’s pleasing to see young South Australian first home buyers driving part of that economic activity,” he said.

However, Opposition Treasury spokesman Stephen Mullighan said by extrapolating the figures, it appeared SA would record an increase of about 780 First Home Buyer recipients for the whole of 2010/21.

He said this was not a significant increase despite $25,000 in Federal Government HomeBuilder grants being on offer during the year.

First Home Owner Grant recipients accounted for about 2400 of the 13,913 HomeBuilder grant applications lodged in SA.

“The figures show the HomeBuilder grant hasn’t made a substantial difference to first home buyers or to housing affordability,” Mr Mullighan said.

“It will effectively only encourage an extra 780 more first home buyers to enter the market, only a 25 per cent increase on a normal year – while numbers show more than a 100 per cent increase in new builds for existing property owners.”

Mr Mullighan said the State Government should have followed the lead of other states and offered additional cash or incentives to first home buyers to help achieve home ownership.

Originally published as South Australia’s first homebuyer grants hit seven year high