Address to the House of Representatives, Statements by Members

Monday 25 August 2025

There are far too many hardworking Australians who feel like their dream of homeownership in the communities in which they work, live and play has never been further out of reach. For too long, these first home buyers—including thousands of young people in my electorate of Bean, like those in so many electorates across the country—have been locked out of the housing market.

Well, last term we got to work and, already, more than 1,200 constituents in Bean are participating in the Home Guarantee Scheme. And that's why, from 1 October, the Albanese government will be making it easier for all new home buyers to buy their first home. With this new housing scheme, first home buyers will be able to buy their own home with a five per cent deposit. This will cut years off the time it takes to save for a deposit, turning a decade into a few years, and buyers won't have to pay a single dollar in mortgage insurance.

This means that the average time to save for an $800,000 home would go down to just a few years, compared to the decade it would take to save for 20 per cent deposit. Together with measures to increase housing supply, the Albanese government is making real progress on improving Australia's housing crisis—a housing crisis that was decades in the making, that will not be fixed overnight, but a housing crisis we are prepared to meet full on.