MEDIA RELEASE:  After a year-long political fight, the Parliament has finally passed the Help to Buy and Build to Rent bills that benefit aspiring homeowners and encourage more housing supply.

Master Builders has strongly supported both pieces of legislation.

Help to Buy is a shared equity scheme allowing eligible home buyers to co-purchase their properties with government, requiring as little as 2 per cent of the purchase price.

Build to Rent housing is seen as a growing asset class that could accelerate capacity for middle market home purchasers and supercharge rental housing supply, but it requires the right tax settings for this to happen.

Build to Rent is designed for long-term rental accommodation which is predominantly owned, managed and operated by an institutional investor.

Eligible projects will be provided with a 15 per cent Managed Investment Trust withholding rate. The scheme will also mandate a percentage of affordable dwellings and rental security of tenure requirements.

Quotes attributable to Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn:

“New independent research by Insightfully has found 7 in 10 Australians who want to buy a home in the next five years fear they won’t be able to.

“We need to continue to develop policies that increase housing supply while also encouraging people into home ownership.

“Help to Buy hits two birds with one stone – it supports more Australians to reach their aspiration of owning their own homes with the effect of driving more investment in new home building.

“Build to Rent is the start of encouraging more institutional investment into new home building, something which has been lacking for a long time because the projects simply don’t stack up.

“We thank the Parliament for resisting the temptation to change negative gearing and capital gains tax arrangements, which would have had a disastrous impact on housing supply.”