Top shared equity scheme Keystart approves two home loans a week. Can Anthony Albanese do better?

Australia’s leading shared-equity scheme approved barely 100 home loans last year, putting Anthony Albanese’s $329m flagship housing affordability plan in further doubt.

The longest-running government shared-equity housing scheme approved just 102 loans last year while another state scheme gave the green light to less than 40.

The revelations prompted national Housing Minister Michael Sukkar to predict federal Labor’s flagship housing affordability proposal would be a lemon.

New figures obtained by News Corp Australia from the leading shared ownership scheme in the country — the Western Australian housing authority’s Keystart program — show only 102 loans were approved in 2020-21 and that 115 were authorised in the financial year before that.

Still, that’s more than has been happening in South Australia; its HomeStart scheme took a stake in only 36 mortgages in 2020-21 and 29 in the previous 12 months, according to annual reports.

Keystart’s income limits of up to $110,000 in total for couples are slightly lower than Anthony Albanese’s proposal ($120,000). HomeStart has a $90,000 threshold for couples.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese speaks in Perth on Tuesday. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Mr Albanese’s scheme is open to as many as 10,000 Australians annually, with the government taking an equity stake of up to 40 per cent.

If the home is sold the government has to be repaid, along with a proportional amount of the capital gain. Should the income limits be breached through pay increases, the owner has to begin buying the government out.

Labor has said the scheme will have a cost of $329 million to the Budget over four years.

The plan draws on work done by the Grattan Institute, published in February. Grattan suggested starting with 5000 places and a 30 per cent cap on government equity.

Mr Sukkar — who devised the Coalition’s new super-for-homes scheme — said Labor was unnecessarily replicating unpopular state schemes.

“The Coalition fundamentally believes that Australians want to own their own home, they don’t want the Labor Party to own their home,” Mr Sukkar said. “Nobody wants to have Anthony Albanese sitting around their kitchen table.

Coalition Housing Minister Michael Sukkar on Sunday. Picture: Jason Edwards

“There are existing state programs that are already providing these options with limited take up and Labor is unnecessarily replicating them.

“Unlike Labor’s poorly thought out scheme, the Coalition’s Super Home Buyer Scheme and the Home Guarantee Scheme allows Australians to use their hard-earned money to buy a home of their own,” Mr Sukkar said.

A federal Labor spokeswoman pointed to different schemes in arguing there would be strong demand.

She said the United Kingdom’s “Help to Buy” equity loan had assisted in more than 55,000 purchases in 2020-21.

Of these nearly 46,000 were first-home buys.

The spokeswoman also cited the experience in Victoria, where about 900 homes had been purchased under a shared equity scheme that only started in October last year; another 1400 househunting approvals had been granted.

NSW and Tasmania were looking to start their own shared equity scheme too, she added.

Originally published as Top shared equity scheme Keystart approves two home loans a week. Can Anthony Albanese do better?