QLD postcodes lead first home loan deposit scheme take-up
News From The Courier Mail - Sophie Foster
New details into the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme have shown it to be an outstanding success, with two Queensland postcodes leading the take-up nationally.
The details were released as part of research by the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation into the first six months of the scheme’s operation to June 30 this year, which saw the government match the loan deposit of 10,000 applicants.
The NHFIC said there was strong demand for the deposit-matching scheme which was accessed by “people of all ages across metro and regional areas around Australia, and those who have moderate taxable incomes”.
“By postcode, demand for the scheme was highest in 4350, Toowoomba area, in southern Queensland (70 loans guaranteed). Other postcodes with large amounts of first home buyers supported by the Scheme were 4305, in southwest Brisbane, Queensland (56); followed by 2560, in South Western Sydney, NSW (54); 3064 in northwest Melbourne, Victoria (52); 3810 (49) and 3977 (49), in southeast Melbourne, Victoria; and 2570, also in South Western Sydney, NSW (47).”
It said New South Wales (2,263), Queensland (1,845) and Victoria (1,617) together made up eight out of 10 loans guaranteed under the scheme, while Western Australia and South Australia were less widely represented – something NHFIC attributed to “the longstanding Keystart and HomeStart low deposit home loan initiatives currently active” in those two states.
Half of those who used the scheme were single buyers whose incomes sat between $60,000 and $80,000, while couples were on household incomes of $90,000 to $125,000.
“Almost 70 per cent of buyers using the scheme purchased a detached house, with 25 per cent buying an apartment and 5 per cent purchasing a townhouse,” the NHFIC report said, with the median purchase price sitting at $385,000 for houses and $475,000 for apartments – most of which were in capital cities.
It found that of the first 10,000 participants who were approved for the scheme, 6,814 had either signed a contract or settled on their home, while 3,186 were at the loan preapproval stage and still looking for a property.
One in six of those were key workers, it found, of which 37 per cent were teachers and 25 per cent were nurses.
The health crisis across the country did not faze participants, with NHFIC chief executive Nathan Dal Bon seeing strong interest across age and income spectrums, as well as from buyers in outer metropolitan and regional areas.
“Demand for the Scheme in the six months to 30 June continued despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Based on available settlement data, the national figures showed that one in eight first home buyers accessed the scheme, with 62.3 per cent in major cities and 37.7 per cent buying in regional areas.
“More than half of the homes purchased in capital cities were between 15 and 30 kilometres from the CBD, with couple applicants typically buying further away from the CBD than singles.”
The NHFIC report said of the 10,000 places released in the six-month period, more than half of the homes had settled (54.7 per cent), another 13.4 per cent had signed contracts to buy, and 31.9 per cent were pre-approved and househunting.
