Coalition super buyer policy to remain as safe as houses

New Liberal leader Peter Dutton has flagged he will stick with the super home buyer scheme the former government took to the election.

New Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton and deputy leader Sussan Ley. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Tracey Nearmy

New Liberal leader Peter Dutton has flagged he will stick with the super home buyer scheme the former government took to the election, saying “home ownership is a huge issue”.

The scheme would have allowed any Australian to withdraw up to 40 per cent of their superannuation – capped at $50,000 – to put towards a first home. The commitment was reckoned a winner by the former government, but was introduced for only the final week of the campaign.

As the Liberal Party looks to reset itself following a disappointing result at the polls, Mr Dutton said “our policies are as we took to the election”.

The former defence minister said his party would take a look at individual measures but in his first press conference as leader he mounted a strong case for letting first-home buyers access their retirement savings to get into the market – a proposal strongly ­opposed by Labor and the super industry.

“First-home ownership is a huge issue. It was when all of us bought our first homes, and it is harder now because of the price increases,” Mr Dutton said.

“A lot of people want to live as close to the city as possible, or to the coastline, so there are different policies we can include, but I’m not philosophically opposed to a policy that allows young people to access their superannuation to invest in … their own home.”

Mr Dutton, who said he bought his first home when he was 19, emphasised the compounding value of residential property as an asset. He said property wealth accumulated over the years would place homeowners in a stronger fin­ancial position into retirement.

“If we allowed people to access their super five years ago, or 15 years ago, 25 years ago, when you see what property prices have done in our country, they’d be sitting on a fortune in terms of equity that they have in their own home, but also in their super fund.”

Australian property prices have grown more quickly than incomes in the past three decades. The average home value was four times average income in the 1980s and early 90s, and is now more than eight times. This has driven home ownership rates among the under 40s to levels not seen since 1947. A parliamentary report, released in March, found “the largest barrier to entry for young Australians is saving for the deposit”.