Housing

Media release – Michael Ferguson, Minister for State Development, Construction and Housing, 1 June 2021

Dow missing the point on house prices

The strong plan the Tasmanian Liberal Government took to the election includes a comprehensive approach to increase housing supply in Tasmania and help more people into home ownership.

Increasing house prices are a growing pain of our strong economy, and a reflection that Tasmania is one of the safest and most desirable places in the world to live, work and raise a family.

That’s why we are delivering a range of measures designed to build more houses and make it easier to get into the market. These include;

• delivering 3,500 new social and affordable houses by 2027;
• Investing an additional $10 million into HomeShare to support low-income Tasmanians buy their own home;
• the widely successful HomeBuilder program, a joint initiative of the Australian and Tasmanian Governments, which saw more than 3,900 applications;
• investing $10 million into a ‘headworks holiday’ to unlock new land supply;
• boosting the First Home Owners Grant from $20,000 to $30,000;
• increasing housing supply with a $2.5 million new secondary dwelling incentive program;
• putting downward pressure on rent prices by delivering a reduction in land tax; and
• increasing the threshold for stamp duty concessions from $400,000 to $500,000 for Tasmanians buying their first home and pensioners downsizing.

Rather than talk our State down, Ms Dow should explain why Labor opposed these sensible and affordable polices, and instead wanted to jack up prices for sub-divisions and cripple new housing developments with their land tax smash and grab.

Tasmanians rejected Labor’s half-baked and uncosted promises in favour of the majority Gutwein Liberal Government plan to increase housing stock and help home buyers – and we are getting on with the job of delivering.

Anita Dow MP, Acting Labor Leader, 1 June 2021

Housing data bad news for first home buyers

Tasmanian’s looking to buy or rent a home are facing an increasingly uphill battle new Core Logic data has revealed.

Acting Labor Leader Anita Dow said housing price increases were becoming unsustainable for families looking for a home.

“Today’s data shows an incredible increase in the cost of house prices and rent,” Ms Dow said.

“House prices have grown 18.1 per cent higher in Regional Tasmania over the past 12 months and 16.5 per cent higher in Hobart.

“Hobart has also seen big jumps in rent prices, increasing by 7.2 per cent for houses and 7.1 per cent for units, numbers that are more than double annual wage increases.”

Ms Dow said the data showed the challenges now facing Tasmanians looking to purchase their first home.

“The reality is that the cost of more affordable homes is increasing.

“The lower quartile has gone up 9.9 per cent over the past three months, meaning the cheapest 25 per cent of properties now cost 10 per cent more than they did just three months ago.

“With rents increasing and housing prices going up, more and more Tasmanians will face the reality of being without a roof over their head.

“And ABS data revealed today shows that just five public sector houses were approved in April, a staggeringly small number.

“The Government needs to act immediately and build more homes for Tasmanians or it risks seeing the public housing waitlist they have failed to address over the past seven years grow even bigger.”