This week's NSW Budget announcement contained some good news for future first time property buyers in the state.
Among the many other funding decisions publicised on June 18, the NSW government has revealed that it will extend the state's first home owner grant for another two years.
This assists first home buyers purchasing or building a new home that they plan to live in by providing them with a lump sum of $15,000.
It was due to be scaled back to $10,000 on January 1, 2014, but will now stay at its current value until the start of 2016.
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) applauded the move in a statement also released June 18, however it called for the government to go even further to help first home buyers.
Currently, home buyers can only qualify for the grant if the property they are buying is valued at $650,000 or less, among other criteria.
HIA president David Bare said that in the context of the current market, a more realistic threshold figure would be $835,000.
Mr Bare also urged more measures to help all buyers of newly built homes in NSW, irrespective of whether they were buying their first or their fifth properties.
He said that by ramping up stamp duty concessions or offering other incentives to these buyers, the market would benefit from a boost in both confidence and housing starts - two things needed to get a sustainable recovery underway.
"A short term injection coupled with increased activity would help overcome the relatively fragile nature of the housing recovery in NSW at present and also support non first home buyers who currently only receive a $5,000 grant," said Mr Bare.
The 2013-14 Budget also included a commitment to spend nearly $60 billion on infrastructure in NSW over the next four years.
That includes major transport projects such as the $4.1 billion North West rail link, and on major road projects like the $1.8 billion WestConnex motorway.
The Property Council of Australia (PCA) said that this infrastructure investment is a sensible use of funds that will contribute to the emergence of new housing and employment precincts.
"NSW and Sydney will get a major productivity kick from investment in infrastructure projects - both large and small," said PCA NSW executive director Glenn Byres.
"The value of investing in city-shaping infrastructure that improves mobility and fine-grain projects that make communities work is well understood."
