The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) President, Mr Hayden Groves has welcomed the launch of the Australian Government’s Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee which becomes available on Saturday 1 October 2022.

Mr Groves said that under the scheme, 10,000 new places will be available helping many more Australians living in regional areas to enter the housing market sooner.

“The scheme comes in as regional towns struggle with housing supply and affordability.

“REIA’s latest Real Estate Market Facts report showed that many regional towns experienced soaring price hikes over the year to June, 2022.

“In NSW, Wollongong was up 17.1% while Newcastle housing saw price hikes of 13.1%. In Queensland, houses on the Sunshine Coast increased by 19.6% while the Gold Coast recorded an overall rise of 17.5%. Victoria’s regions recorded more modest growth with Ballarat and Bendigo seeing rises of 3.6%,” he said.

Mr Groves said scarcity of supply in the regional towns has become a driving factor in housing affordability particularly as interest rates rise and first home buyers jostle for what little property is for sale in those areas adding that, “the RFHBG will ease some of the pain many first home buyers have been experiencing.”

“However, programs like these must be implemented in tandem with the National Plan for Housing which must focus on building more houses in Australia’s regions and stamp duty reforms that would help address affordability.” 

The new Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee (RFHBG) supports eligible first home buyers living in regional areas to purchase a modest home in a regional area with a deposit of as little as five per cent.

To be eligible, home buyers (or at least one borrower when applying as a couple) must have lived in the regional area or adjacent regional area they are purchasing in, for the preceding 12-month period to the date they execute their home loan agreement.

Other eligibility and lender’s criteria, as RFHBG caps, apply and will be available to access at: Home | NHFIC.