Cash Help to Buy a House in Australia

The Australian government has announced a significant cash injection to help first time house buyers. Worried about the effects of the turmoil in the world’s financial markets, Prime Minister Rudd will use part of the government’s surplus to boost Australia’s weakening economy.

From today, the government is going to triple the current $7,000 first-home buyers grant offered to people buying a new-build home. The new payment to buyers will be $21,000.

First home buyers moving into existing houses or apartments will receive $14,000. Extra payments will be available for all contracts entered into before the end of June 2009.

The payments for homebuyers are available to anyone buying a house in Australia for the first time and so are available to new arrivals provided they have legal permanent residence in the country.

The total economic stimulus package consists of:

$4.8 billion in payments to pensioners.
$3.9 billion in payments for families.
$1.5 billion in payments to first home buyers.
$187 million for new training positions.

Mr Rudd said the stimulus package “is designed to support activity in the housing sector because the housing sector is critical to the economy”.

Australia is in a better position than most western countries to weather the current financial storm and Mr Rudd commented that it was time to spend part of the federal government’s $21.7 billion budget surplus.

“The purpose of a surplus in the budget is to cope with tough times… therefore the government intends to deploy this surplus in the ways in which I have just described.”

The government estimates that more than 150,000 first home buyers will benefit from the time-limited scheme.