Housing affordability is a red-hot election issue with both leaders making promises to help young people buy a home.
On Saturday, a far-right vlogger interrupted a press conference being held by prime minister Anthony Albanese, to draw attention to immigration and its impact on housing affordability and medical services.
"What about the fact that people like us can't get any housing? We can't get rentals anymore," he yelled before being escorted out.
Later that day, opposition leader Peter Dutton repeated the message that he wanted to be the "prime minister for home ownership, home affordability and home accessibility".
What is the Coalition promising on housing?
During his budget-in-reply speech, Dutton pointed to several initiatives intended to improve housing affordability.
- Cut the permanent migration program by 25 per cent;
- Stricter caps on foreign students;
- $5 billion to fund essential infrastructure; and
- Allow first home buyers to access up to $50,000 of their superannuation for a home deposit.
A heckler interrupted Anthony Albanese's press conference on Saturday. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
The opposition leader has so far not revealed what categories of migrants he will cut, but has said this would be revealed before election day.
Experts have dismissed claims international students are significantly impacting the national housing market.
They have pointed out that allowing first home buyers to use their super for a home deposit will push up prices even further — although Dutton has argued it would help people get a foot on the housing ladder.
There is also scepticism whether Coalition's $5 billion in infrastructure spending will achieve its target of creating 500,000 new homes.
The money will mostly be made available to local governments to help fund power, water, sewage and other infrastructure but its success may depend on whether the money is provided via grants, which are likely to be taken up, or by concessional loans.
Labor has called the figures "fanciful" and believes the funding would see 70,000 homes would be built at best.
Dutton has also promised to ban foreign investors and temporary residents from purchasing existing Australian homes for a period of two years.
Labor has matched this pledge, introducing it in February this year.
Labor's $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which Dutton says has not built a single new home, will also face the axe if the Coalition is elected.
What is Labor promising on housing?
Labor has defended its housing fund, which aims to build 20,000 new social housing properties over five years from 2024. It has blamed the Greens and Coalition for delays in getting the legislation passed.
"If legislation is passed in December 2024 then yeah magically there’s not a huge housing build," Albanese said.
He said tens of thousands of homes were under construction.
"The previous government didn't even bother to have a housing minister, let alone to build any public housing."
Anthony Albanese has defended his government's housing record. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
In its budget, Labor allocated $33 billion to address housing affordability.
This includes increasing the income and house price caps for the Help to Buy scheme, a shared equity program for first home buyers that sees the government contribute up to 40 per cent of the purchase price.
The scheme supports 40,000 people, and there are price caps of up to $1.3 million in NSW, $950,000 in Victoria and $1 million in Queensland and ACT.
The government will also try to make building faster and cheaper by providing $50 million to boost the development of pre-fabrication and modular construction methods.
