An Analysis of Housing Subsidy Schemes in Australia

Abstract

The affordability problems of acquiring home ownership in Australia have attracted much attention in recent years. This has led to many suggested (and some implemented) schemes to reduce these problems either by restructuring loan repayments or by providing subsidies to selected groups of people who are in most need of assistance to buy their own homes. There has been little attempt to measure the cost to the government of these latter subsidy schemes. This study continues a previous theoretical analysis which quantifies cash flow profiles over the lifetime of houses, taking into account detailed estimates of housing costs, the characteristics of the size of loan, distribution of loan sizes with income, the length of residence and whether the loan is for a first or subsequent home. Comparison of schemes for subsidising home ownership, identification of significant differences in costs, both annual and lifetime, and assessment from the governmental viewpoint are demonstrated by examples.