ELECTION day is almost here and both major parties have offered up their own housing policies - particularly aimed at first home buyers.
But Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said the best scheme for first home buyers is currently the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme where eligible buyers do not have to pay mortgage insurance to buy with a lower deposit.“This scheme assists with the deposit but is cleaner in that, provided the first home buyer is able to pay off the loan, it does not require ongoing government involvement through the life of the first home buyer’s ownership of the property,” she said.“Beyond that, housing supply is critical – long term, if there are enough homes for everyone, then rental rates and house prices are less likely to increase at rates which cause housing distress to buyers and renters.”Owner occupiers have made up 74 per cent of Ray White auction buyers this year. Recent data on first home buyer activity released from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shown that loan commitments for first home buyers are still well above long term averages. This means a good chunk of those auction buyers were also likely first home buyers.Not only are they competing against each other. Investors also find first home buyer stock desirable and more than 23 per cent of auction buyers this year have been investors. This makes up a large pool for first home buyers to compete against, especially with Ray White’s national clearance rate still historically high at 72 per cent for the year.Last federal election on May 18, 2019, Ray White scheduled 127 auctions and recorded a 55 per cent clearance rate nationally. There were 2.8 registered bidders and 2.1 active bidders on average at a Ray White auction. In comparison, this Saturday, the leading group has 238 auctions scheduled across the country.Meanwhile, over the week the Ray White Group has 558 listings scheduled to go to auction nationally. Breaking that down by major capital cities, Ray White in Melbourne has 122 auctions scheduled, while Ray White Sydney has another 137 auctions booked in. Ray White Brisbane has 63 auctions scheduled and Ray White Adelaide has 60 auctions booked this week.
