An entire generation of millennials have largely been forgotten about, with the 2018 Budget favoring a shift towards housing-asset-based welfare for elderly and retired home owners.

Siobhan Hayden, HashChing Chief Operating Officer, told WILLIAMS MEDIA the millennial generation has been overlooked.

"There's a whole area of housing affordability seeming to be given a limited voice, limited options, that's for sure. Last year the government introduced the First Home Super Savers Scheme to help, which didn't go far enough. It was a great start, but it just didn't go far enough," she said.

Mandeep Sodhi, the CEO of HashChing, agrees.

"I’m disappointed by the complete lack of attention that the Federal Budget gave to housing affordability. Last year’s measures, such as the Super Saver Scheme and the downsizing incentive for retirees, didn’t go far enough in terms of making it easier for buyers in Australia to purchase their first home.

"With more out-of-cycle interest rate hikes expected in the near future, stagnant wage growth and an ever-increasing cost of living, the government needs to commit to invest in helping individuals and families crack into the property market," he said.

University graduates will have to start repaying their HECS debt sooner, with repayment thresholds being lowered to $45,000. While this will reduce the capacity for young people to accumulate savings at a time when they will likely be looking to save a deposit for their first home purchase, Hayden told WILLIAMS MEDIA this measure should actually be beneficial for millennials.

"I think that's a good move in part. At the end of the day, when you are seeking finance through a major lender, your existing debts are also taken into consideration as an existing liability. The sooner young people extinguish their university debts, the better position they are in to seek finance for a bigger purchase, such as a home," she said.

This year's budget contains measures to expand the Pension Loans Scheme, a reverse mortgage scheme allowing age pensioners to convert some of their housing wealth into an income stream to fund their retirement by using the family home as collateral. 

Hayden told WILLIAMS MEDIA that although from a broader economic perspective this is a good thing, it impacts millennials looking to take their first step into the housing market.

"Keeping retirees in their homes longer is a good thing from a broader economic perspective, so the focus isn't on specialized care facilities. The health and wellbeing of retirees is shown to be higher when they stay in their home.

"However, its reducing the access to housing stock the longer they stay in their homes, particularly with the baby boomer group now in that period of retirement. So there are benefits and there are challenges," she said.

Hayden said she'd like to see lenders take a more innovative approach when young people are seeking finance for big purchases, like a first home.

"Lenders need to start looking at innovative loan products to counter for things such as the share in gig economy, where people doing university and also earning income through Airbnb, Uber or Airtasker. The normal aspiration for a lender is to have someone in a full-time job for a minimum of three months. However, that long-term stability isn't always going to be the case in the coming ten years," she said. 

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