Map: Sydney and Melbourne suburbs now in reach for first homebuyers

A change in the first home buyers scheme has unlocked Sydney and Melbourne suburbs to prospective buyers.

The raised price caps on the government’s first home buyers’ low-deposit scheme unlocks a range of suburbs for prospective home buyers.

The new caps, supported by the opposition, were announced by the Prime Minister on Monday.

“Increasing the price caps for homes available under the scheme means more people have more options when purchasing a home,” said Mr Morrison.

From July 2022, the cap will be raised to $900K from $800K in Sydney and regional centres in NSW, $800K from $700K in Melbourne and Victorian regional centres, $750K from $600K in the rest of NSW, and $650K from $500K in the rest of Victoria.

Data reported by The Sydney Morning Herald reveal this change will open up houses in suburbs closer to both respective cities for first-home buyers.

In Sydney, these suburbs include North Sydney, Mascot, Kensington, Surry Hills, and Pyrmont.

In Melbourne, suburbs include Springvale, Maribyrnong, and Brooklyn.

The scheme allows people to purchase homes with a deposit of just 5 per cent, with the government guaranteeing the other 15 per cent.

This comes after the federal government opened up the program to 50,000 more Australians in the Budget handed down last month.

Economist Saul Eslake disparaged the latest proposal, telling ABC Radio that it would make housing more unaffordable.

“What schemes like this do is push up the price of housing essentially by the amount of additional assisnatce that’s offered.

“The reality that all politicians are aware of is that there’re at least 11 million voters who own at least one property and at leat two million who own two or more and, of course, these voters want governments to keep doing things to push housing prices up or stop them going down. This is yet another example of that kind of scheme.”

Many analysts expect housing prices to deflate somewhat in 2022 after two years of rampant growth.