Page 1572 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 27 September 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Nor have we forgotten the needs of the aged. The budget provides funds for 56 new aged persons units. We have a discussion paper being prepared on how reverse equity schemes could operate in the ACT and how these can be linked to housing policies for the aged.
The budget also provides challenges for the private sector. The Commonwealth Government has offered the ACT $210,000 this year rising up to over $1m in five years' time to establish and subsidise a private sector rental housing trust. The trust would raise private sector funds and build or purchase existing rental dwellings, arrange property management and rent dwellings on the private market. We expect that this could contribute up to 500 dwellings over the next five years.
We will be inviting expressions of interest from financial institutions and housing industry organisations in November. The success of the proposal depends on the creative skills of the private sector. We will be looking at proposals on the basis of the social justice impact; the number of new dwellings to be provided; the financial capacity of the sponsor; and other options, such as the scope to link the systems of home ownership strategies.
Home ownership is one of the tasks for the next phase of the housing industry review. Under the new housing agreement, we must redesign our home ownership scheme this year to better complement private sector mortgage funds. As an interim measure, we have increased the funds under the commissioner for housing loan scheme from $13.92m last year to an estimated $15.1m this year. But importantly, as the Chief Minister announced, we have extended stamp duty exemptions of up to $1,765 to first home buyers in this year's budget.
In order to direct assistance to the most needy first home buyers and to make the exemption more effective, the scheme will be subject to eligibility criteria. An income test will restrict eligibility to those first home buyers with an annual taxable household income of less than $33,000. A full exemption of duty will be provided up to a house value limit of $90,000.
The budget also provides assistance for those existing home buyers who are in danger of losing their home. Following the Commonwealth decision to provide more money for mortgage relief, the housing policy review has looked at the current scheme. The criteria for eligibility for assistance will be relaxed to provide assistance to home buyers with gross household incomes of up to $850 per week. Non-interest bearing loans of up to $3,000 will be provided. Those on the lowest incomes will be eligible for refinancing of their loans under the commissioner for housing loan schemes. We will also be amending the commissioner for housing loan scheme to allow granting of priority assistance to lower income households in difficulty.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .