It was said to be one of the most important budgets in Australia’s history, but as is often the case, there wasn’t a lot on offer for property investors.

However, as we’ve seen over the past 12 months, there continues to be a large focus on helping first home buyers get into the property market.

Family Home Guarantee for Single Parents

The most notable new inclusion into the Federal Government Budget was the Family Home Guarantee. This is a program that on the surface appears to be very similar to the FHLDS.

This program will allow single parents to purchase a home with as little as a 2% deposit and this will be available to 10,000 households over the next four years.

First Home Super Saver Scheme

The First Home Super Saver Scheme has been in place for a number of years, however, this year’s budget has increased the limit of super that first home buyers can access.

Previously a first home buyer was able to access $30,000 of super and this has not been raised to $50,000.

New Home Guarantee

The New Home Guarantee, which many people might know as the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (FHLDS) was bought back for another year, with 10,000 again available. 

This program allows first home buyers to put down as little as a 5% deposit, without the need to pay Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI), with the Federal Goverment, effectively guaranteeing the deposit shortfall.

Home Builder

One of the highlights of the past 12 months, has been the HomeBuilder scheme, which saw a rush from many looking to build or renovate.

The scheme has now officially been wound down, however, as we know, the period in which construction needs to commence has been pushed out to 18 months, because of the log-jam of applicants that need to get started building in order to access the grants.

Overall, we saw very little for property investors, however, first home buyers continue to be at the forefront of the Federal Government’s thinking at the moment.

As house prices continue to rise across the country, affordable housing and the social issues that are associated with rising house prices will likely continue to be an issue for many years to come.