The 2021 federal budget has been released. Below is a summary of all the schemes, funding and details of the 2021 budget that are relevant to Australian property investors. 

Public Housing

The federal government will continue to support the state and territory governments through $124.7 million in funding for social and community housing. This measure is part of a wider set of budget-based efforts to address the impact of rising homelessness across the country.

Family Home Guarantee for Sole Parents

A new ‘Family Home Guarantee’ has been introduced. This will allow up to 10,000 sole parents to purchase a home with as little as a 2 per cent deposit over the next four years. The scheme comes into effect from 1 July 2021 and is subject to a similar price cap system as the existing First Home Buyers scheme.

First Home Super Saver Scheme

The federal government has extended the First Home Super Saver Scheme so Australians can contribute up to $50,000 to their super fund to be used for a deposit, up from $30,000 when the scheme was introduced in the 2017-2018 budget. For more information about the First Home Super Saver scheme, click here.

New Home Guarantee

The FHLDS (New Homes) scheme (also known as the New Homes Guarantee) launched last year, will be expanded for a second year, providing an additional 10,000 places in 2021-22. First home buyers seeking to build a new home or purchase a newly built home who are approved for the scheme will be able to do so with a deposit of as little as 5 percent.

HomeBuilder

Applications for the government’s HomeBuilder scheme are not receiving an extension in this year’s federal budget. Applications for the scheme, which provided grants of $25,000 for new homes and major renovations to eligible Australians, closed in April 2021. However, the HomeBuilder six-month construction commencement period has been extended to 18 months for all applications. This will support jobs in the residential construction sector in 2021 and into 2022.

Superannuation Downsizer Scheme

The age at which retirees can access the downsizer scheme has been lowered from 65 to 60. The measure allows people older than 60 and are in retirement who sell the family home to contribute $300,000 from the sale proceeds to their super fund over and above other contribution rules. Couples are able to add $600,000 to their super savings from this scheme.

Negative Gearing and Capital Gains

The 2021 budget includes a number of measures relevant to property investors, however it does not directly address or change existing arrangements around the critical mechanism of negative gearing nor does it touch capital gains tax.