Housing breakthrough as Greens finally back policy
Australians struggling to break into the housing market might have a new avenue available to them as the Greens commit to vote in favour of a federal shared equity scheme.
The federal government’s long-stalled Help to Buy legislation will enable the Commonwealth to kick in a portion of the dwelling cost so eligible home buyers can buy with a smaller deposit.
The minor party will also back build-to-rent tax incentives, the party’s leader Adam Bandt said on Monday.
“There comes a point where you’ve pushed as far as you can,” Mr Bandt said.
“We tried hard to get Labor to shift on soaring rents and negative gearing, but we couldn’t get there this time.
“We’ll wave the housing bills through and take the fight to the next election, where we’ll keep (opposition leader) Peter Dutton out and then push Labor to act on unlimited rent rises and tax handouts to wealthy property investors.”
The minor party had been pushing the government to do more to ease the housing crisis, including phasing out negative gearing and capping rent increases, in exchange for its support on the Help to Buy and build-to-rent tax incentives.
The legislation failed to attract opposition support.
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