Queensland First Home Buyer Grant collapse points to grim issue in housing market
Grim new government statistics have highlighted the struggle faced by a key group to secure an affordable home on the Gold Coast. See the data.
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The number of grants issued to first home buyers on the Gold Coast has collapsed since 2019, highlighting the extreme difficulty of finding affordable new homes in the city.
Only 144 First Home Buyer Grants were issued in the last financial year, a steep drop from the 755 issued in financial year 2019-2020.
The state government grant gives eligible buyers up to $30,000 towards buying or building a new home with a value of up to $750,000.
However a scarcity of new builds and rising prices have made the grant largely redundant. According to PropTrack data, in Pimpama the average price of a house five years ago was $485,000. Today it’s $749,000.
On Monday the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released new data which showed lending to first home buyers remained weak.
Despite a rising population, just 1947 loans were issued to first home buyers in Queensland in May, a slight improvement in the 1889 recorded at the same time last year.
“Lending for new homes (nationally) remains around the lowest levels observed since interest rates began rising, and well below the 20-year average,” Housing Industry Association senior economist Matt King said.
“This continued weak result in new home lending does not bode well for the supply and delivery of new homes to market in short to medium term.”
Lending to investors is proving stronger, with ABS statistics showing the value of new loans to investors in Queensland was up 48.2 per cent since May last year.
“In May, the value of new loans to investors in Queensland reached an all-time high of $2.4 billion, exceeding Victoria for the third consecutive month,” said Fiona Cotsell, ABS head of finance statistics.
“This is mainly due to investors taking out larger loans in the sunshine state compared to this time last year. We saw the average loan size for investors in Queensland increase by 14.3 per cent since May 2023, from $508,000 to $580,000.”
REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said Queensland had the lowest proportion of first home buyers in Australia.
“First home buyers make up less than one in five loans in the state,” she said.
Ms Mercorella suggested first home buyers consider ‘rentvesting’ – buying and renting out a property in a more affordable location, while renting elsewhere.
Originally published as Queensland First Home Buyer Grant collapse points to grim issue in housing market
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