Labor to reintroduce housing co-ownership Help to Buy Bill

Labor will reintroduce its signature housing co-ownership bill on Tuesday, as it attempts to face roadblocks by the Greens and the Coalition in the Senate.

The government will reintroduce its Help To Buy Bill in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, once parliament resumes for a three-day sitting week.

Two attempts to force a vote in the Senate in September were thwarted, with the Greens pushing back the next vote until November 26 in order to continue negotiations.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil called on the opposition and cross bench to put politics aside and back the legislation which would allow 40,000 Australians buy a home with a 2 per cent deposit.

To qualify for the scheme, buyers also must earn less than $90,000 a year, or $120,000 a year for couples.

“Every time the Coalition and the Greens have had a chance to help renters or first home buyers, they have chosen politics over progress,” she said.

“This week they get the chance to make progress for first home buyers in the parliament. Australians wanting to buy their first home expect more than further delay.”

The Greens have argued the scheme would not help, was largely inaccessible to the key workers Labor has said the Bill will assist, including nurses, childcare workers, teachers and paramedics.

Analysis by the Parliamentary Library found registered nurses and paramedics on average would earn above the income test, while a childcare worker on an average full-time salary of $67,430 a year would be in mortgage stress if they bought in Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne.

The Greens also argue the policy will likely drive up prices of homes below the maximum price cap of $950,000 for NSW buyers in Sydney and other regional centres.

Instead the minor party, which holds the balance of power in the Senate, has called on the government to strip back negative gearing and capital gains tax concession for investors – both policies Labor has denounced.

The Greens have also called on the government to invest in a government-owned property developer which would be tasked with building affordable homes, which could be funded through cutbacks to the investor tax concessions.

“The Greens are ready to negotiate on a plan that actually helps people buy a home, but we will not just rubber stamp a Bill that will drive up house prices and force people into severe mortgage stress,” said Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather.

“As long as the federal government keeps dishing out billions of dollars in tax handouts to property speculators through negative gearing and the capital gains discount, then property investors will keep beating first home buyers at auctions and bidding up the price of housing.”