Queensland budget 2016: first-homeowners boost chance to leap

For Sam Williams, the Queensland government’s $5000 boost to the first-homeowners’ grant is extra motivation to leap.

Sam Williams, 24, with his partner Jessica Piotrowski, 21, at his family’s home in Brisbane’s Coorparoo. ‘It’s a quite small window in the grand scheme’. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

For 24-year-old IT project manager Sam Williams, the Queensland government’s $5000 boost to the first-homeowners’ grant is extra motivation to leap.

Mr Williams has been “aggressively saving” for a deposit for two years, living in his family home to save on rent and cancelling luxuries such as his gym membership and subscriptions to streaming services Netflix and Spotify. “I think a lot of my friends feel a deposit is unattainable, and house prices are not cheap, so it’s hard to get into the market,” he said.

“They would rather rent until they secure a good job; a few people are savvy and are good savers, but a lot of people don’t want to buy something old and small.

“(The extra grant) is for 12 months. It’s a quite small window in the grand scheme of things, so it absolutely motivates you to buy.”

The property industry has backed Labor’s plan to increase to $20,000 the first-homeowners’ grant for a year from July 1. It only applies to new homes under $750,000, and is partly aimed at stimulating buyer demand to help cut the glut in Brisbane’s oversupplied new apartment market.

The budget papers show investment in the housing sector has been boosted by low mortgage rates and is growing “robustly”.

Damian Hackett, chief executive of Brisbane-based residential agency Place, said the first-homeowners’ boost would provide a stimulus to young househunters. “The hardest thing … is to have enough for a deposit to go to the bank, so $5000 at that level can make a big difference,” he said.

“But prices in Queensland haven’t gone through the same dramatic growth as in Sydney and Melbourne so it hasn’t been as much of an issue.”

The property sector has been scathing of the budget’s 3 per cent stamp duty surcharge for foreign investors, forecast to raise $15m in its first year and $25m a year after that.

Treasurer Curtis Pitt said Queensland was still more attractive to overseas buyers after NSW announced a 4 per cent surcharge yesterday and Victoria introduced a 7 per cent levy last year.

Property Council of Queensland executive director Chris Mountford said foreign investment had driven strong development in the southeast Queensland apartment market. “It beggars ­belief that the government is willing to risk making it even more difficult for the apartment market by slugging it with an additional stamp duty surcharge,” he said.