Brendan Coates

And the proposal is basically that the federal government would be a partner in investing in a property.

It would take up to a 30% equity stake, as you suggest.

And that means that it collects any capital gains on that 30% equity stake when the property is eventually sold or any capital losses.

So it's a silent partner in the home.

And what that does is it reduces the deposit hurdle for first-time buyers on low incomes.

And it also means that older Australians, say, if you've been separated or divorced, you've lost your home, you're not in the workforce for long enough to buy another one, you can reduce the amount that you've got to borrow and eventually pay back by the time you retire.

Now, the government would own 30%.

It would not charge rent or interest on that 30% stake.

So it would be giving that to the borrower or the purchaser.

at no cost, but it would collect any capital gain or loss.

The purchaser would need to have at least a 5% deposit.

So they would have to have at least 5% of the purchase price.

What that means is instead of having to borrow, you know, 80, 90, 95% of the purchase price, the borrower only has to purchase or borrow, you know, 65% of the purchase price.

The person who buys the house would then be able to, over time, if they want to, buy out the government's equity stake, you know, at whatever the prevailing market price is at the time.

You could...

chip away at it 5% at a time until eventually the person owns their own home outright.

Yeah, so look, half of all Australians aged 25 to 64, so working age Australians that are single, earn less than $60,000 a year.

And about 25% of couples earn less than $90,000.

Now, the reason we chose those levels is you're providing support, you're adding to housing demand.

The risk with anything that you do that adds to housing demand is that you end up just pushing up prices.