Finally home truths are being revealed...engineered to keep up the facade as mortgage fraud victims were being tossed out of their homes! It’s enough to make you want to demand an election!
It’s the landlords game in full swing with all bets ending up in bank bucket shops!
One in five double dipped on new home grant scheme
Jessica Irvine
13 October 2017
One in five recipients of a now abolished $5000 "new home grant" double-dipped on the scheme to receive multiple grants, including 1500 people and 1869 companies who pocketed more than five grants each.
First home buyers were not eligible for the grants, which were introduced by the Baird government in 2012 and pitched as a way to boost housing construction.
But economists have been highly critical of the scheme, saying it boosted the bottom line of builders and further inflated property prices.
A total of 83,151 grants worth $416 million were handed out under the controversial scheme, which was shut down by the Berejiklian government on June 30 after criticism from former Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens.
In a review for the government, Mr Stevens was critical of all grants to home buyers but singled out those going to non-first-time buyers as particularly wasteful.
"It is important to note that at present about half of the grants made by the government do not go to first home buyers: they go to those buying their second or subsequent home, if it is a new dwelling," he wrote in his report to the Premier in May. "There may have been a case for this to assist the building industry during the financial crisis, but the builders don't need that demand stimulus now: what they need is faster processes for converting zoning and development applications into construction and an ability to respond to those segments of the market that will accept smaller, lower-cost dwellings."
Independent economist Saul Eslake said it was possible the scheme had led to "some marginal increase in supply" but "the most significant effect would likely have been to fatten builders' profit margins by something close to the amount of the grant".
Initially unlimited, the scheme was modified in 2014 to exclude foreign buyers and to introduce a cap of one grant per buyer per year.
But a new breakdown of the scheme, obtained by the NSW opposition under a freedom of information request to the NSW Department of Finance, reveals the extent of the double-dipping that occurred.
During the five years of the scheme, there was a total of 131,203 recipients. A single grant could go to more than one recipient, for example a husband or wife.
Of the total recipients, 23,341 – or 18 per cent – received more than one grant, the figures show. Of these multiple recipients, 3,378 pocketed more than five grants each, including 1509 individuals and 1869 companies.
Shadow treasury spokesman Ryan Park described the figures as "staggering". "It must have finally dawned even on them – Berejiklian and [Treasurer] Perrottet – that it was not a good look to give away tens of millions of dollars to help people get their fourth or even fifth home, while hundreds of thousands of people were struggling to get a toehold on the property ladder," he said.
"If you're looking for evidence that this government has failed to honour its pledge to tackle the housing crisis, then here it is."A spokesman for the Treasurer pointed to record new housing construction and approval figures in NSW. "When Labor was in government they were averaging 2,666 approvals a month. The Berejiklian-Barilaro government is averaging 4,679 approvals a month, or a 76per cent increase," the spokesman said.
"The New Home Grant scheme, introduced to stimulate supply in the market, is being phased out from the July 1 this year, having been replaced by a package of reforms including stamp duty exemptions and reductions for first home buyers. "Labor's empty words on housing affordability ring hollow after 16 years of inaction when they were in government."
Previous information provided by the department revealed that postcodes on Sydney's urban fringe were the biggest recipients of the grants, including Camden, Spring Farm, Cambridge Park, Marsden Park, Liverpool and Campbelltown and Kellyville.
Foreign buyers are cashing in on NSW's New Home Grant Scheme
OVERSEAS buyers of newly built homes in NSW are receiving $5000 grants. with the decision to allow non-citizens to take part.
EXCLUSIVE ANDREW CLENNELL DailyTelegraph
February 4, 2014 12:45am
OVERSEAS buyers of newly built homes in NSW are receiving $5000 grants with the state government's decision to allow non-citizens to take part in its New Home Grant Scheme.
As Chinese investors are blamed for driving up Sydney house prices and accused of keeping first home buyers out of the property market, it has emerged that the government is giving them a helping hand.
Under the first homeowner scheme, a buyer - and in the case of a couple, at least one of the two - had to be an Australian citizen and they had to live in the home for at least six months to qualify.
But, under the New Home Owner Scheme introduced in the 2012 state budget, buyers can own multiple homes in their country of origin and still apply for the grant for the purchase of Australian properties.
They don't have to live in it. All they have to do is apply through the foreign investment review board to buy.
In fact, if an overseas buyer were to buy 20 off-the-plan apartments, they could apply for 20 $5000 grants, Treasurer Mike Baird's office confirmed yesterday. The grant is paid as a discount on stamp duty for properties worth up to $650,000 and vacant land worth up to $450,000.
Last year alone, the government gave out 16,474 new homeowners grants worth $82.37 million. By contrast, after it scrapped concessions for first homeowner grants on existing homes, first homeowner approvals in November were down 67.3 per cent from two years ago.
In the year to July 2012, there was $5.95 billion worth of overseas investment in new NSW residential property by overseas investors compared to about $1.74 billion two years earlier, Foreign Investment Review Board figures reveal.
LJ Hooker's national head of home loans, Paul O'Regan, said the investment from Chinese and other Asian buyers in off-the-plan apartments was "significant".
"We have actually run some trade shows over in China and we had 14 or 15 properties sold just at the trade show," he said.
Opposition Leader John Robertson said taxpayers "should not be footing the bill for cash handouts to overseas investors when young first home buyers are struggling to purchase a home".
Mr Baird said the scheme was driving construction so he did not have immediate plans to change it but indicated there might be change in coming months after being contacted over the loophole by The Daily Telegraph.
"We are conscious of the pressure on first home buyers that foreign investors could be applying, and accordingly we are seriously looking at options to ensure that our first home buyers are given every support to own their own home," he said.
"Any policy action we take must not jeopardise the recovery in the housing sector that is currently under way."
OWNERS ARE HAPPY WITH A FIXED ASSET
WHILE homeowners will be dreading any rise in interest rates, those with fixed rates will have cause for relief. Homeowner Will Watts said he would welcome a rise in interest rates.
RATES FORECAST TO STAY LOW THIS YEAR Jennifer Wexton Business Editor
THE good news for first-home buyers stretched with big home loans is that official interest rates are unlikely to start creeping up this year.
But the bad news is that doesn't leave much time to get on top of the debt before the low interest rate honeymoon turns, analysts have warned.
The market is betting there is just a 4 per cent chance the Reserve Bank of Australia would change the official cash rate at today's first board meeting of the year. Most economists are predicting rates would remain on hold until 2015.
Analysis of mortgage stress data shows first-home buyers are beginning to get loaded up with credit card debt as they struggle to meet mortgage repayments, said Martin North of Digital Finance Analytics.
"We are seeing increases in credit card debt among first-home buyers. Some of these people have four credit cards."
Once rates start climbing, or the job market worsens, first- home buyers will be the first to hit hot water. "It's the people who bought early on, who are just getting their heads above water," Mr North said.
First-home buyers who jumped into the property market when rates hit lows not seen since the 1950s had to compete with cashed-up investors, which is driving prices up and prompting buyers to borrow more.
The average size of first-home buyer loans has almost doubled since 2005, from $169,000 to $312,000 last year, Mr North said. "People are more leveraged because of the fact that they have had to borrow bigger loans," Mr North said.
After the global financial crisis in 2009 and 2010 the proportion of first-home buyers in mortgage stress was four times the average, he said.......
CommSec chief economist Craig James said the sweet spot to get a fixed rate home loan had past, as fix rates were now increasing. "The perfect time to have fixed your interest rate was probably about four or five months ago," Mr North said.
Mr James added: "We are seeing an improving economy and the longer this goes on, the RBA is more likely to think they will put rates up to more normal levels."
CANSTAR research manager Mitchell Watson said borrowers should shop around, as borrowers paying an average interest rate stand to save as much as $220 a month in repayments by switching to a lower rate.
"There is a 1.89 per cent difference between the highest and lowest standard variable home loan rate," he said. "On a $400,000 mortgage over a 25-year term, that potentially equates to around $450 in additional repayment cost per month."
Stephen Koukalas of Market Economics was one of few economist predicting rates might rise by 1.25 per cent by Christmas, and could start rising from today.