16-03-2025
$92,500 superannuation warning over controversial plan for first-home buyers: ‘Supercharged price hike'
Allowing first-home buyers to withdraw their superannuation for house deposits could see property prices skyrocket by up to 10.3 per cent, new independent research has found. The Coalition has promised to let Aussies access up to $50,000 from their super savings to buy their first home if they win this year's federal election.
A new study authored by University of South Australia Professor Chris Leishman, commissioned by the Super Members Council, found the policy could see median capital city prices rise by up to $92,500. This could add $260 a fortnight to the home buyer's mortgages.
The modelling found house prices would increase by between 7.4 and 10.3 per cent over a two-year period. The study used two econometric models to estimate the price impacts of the proposal.
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'It is an uncontroversial finding - if you add demand to an inelastic market, prices are going to rise, with the unintended consequence of making housing less affordable,' Professor Leishman said.
Super Members Council has estimated that median house prices could rise by an average of $123,000 in Sydney, $80,000 in Melbourne, $92,000 in Brisbane and around $84,000 in Perth and Adelaide.
Super Members Council CEO Misha Schubert said evidence showed that early withdrawals of super for house deposits would push up house prices further and faster and price more Aussies out of owning their own home.
'Raiding retirement savings for house deposits would just unleash a supercharged price hike in house prices, not create more new home buyers,' she said.
'That would mean home buyers in future would have to pay higher repayments on bigger mortgages for longer, worsening housing affordability and cost-of-living pressures on younger Australians.'
It follows the super group's analysis of New Zealand's super for house scheme, which it said served as a 'cautionary tale' for Australia.
It found house prices had risen 134 per cent from June 2010 to June 2024 when the policy was introduced.
Homeownership rates fell overall, particularly among young people, with rates dropping by about 7 per cent for people in their 30s.
Since 2014, the total number of Kiwi first-home buyers taking out a mortgage with a loan-to-value ratio of more than 80 per cent tripled, rising from 25 to 75 per cent.
The Coalition has proposed allowing first-home buyers to access 40 per cent or up to $50,000 of their super to purchase a first home.
Most people under 40 don't have enough superannuation to pull out the full $50,000.
The latest ATO data found males aged 30 to 34 have $56,344 on average, while females have $46,289 on average.
Super Members Council found a 30-year-old who withdrew $35,000 from their super today could retire with about $195,000 less in today's dollars.
