The Albanese Government\u2019s First Home Guarantee Scheme, which allows first-home buyers to purchase a home with a 5% deposit, will break the bank for many, according to data compiled by the parliamentary library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The analysis looks at the affordability of repayments under the scheme on the median house and unit price in each Australian capital city for the most common professions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It reveals that of the 3.8 million Australians in the top 10 most common professions in Australia, the vast majority would be unable to afford mortgage repayments on the median Australian home without falling into housing stress (spending at least 30% of their income on housing costs). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The data shows that for many of the country\u2019s most common and essential professions, home ownership under Labor\u2019s scheme remains out of reach. For a nurse earning an average income to purchase a house in Sydney (where the median sale price is $1,490,000), they could be spending 76% of their earnings on mortgage repayments. For a school teacher, that figure could be as high as 87% of their income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of Oct 1st 2025, the Albanese Government lifted borrowing limits and income caps under the scheme, which the Australian Greens warn will push up house prices even further and saddle first-home buyers with huge levels of debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greens finance, housing and homelessness spokesperson Senator Barbara Pocock:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnder this scheme, Labor is encouraging some of our lowest paid workers to take out loans on homes they can\u2019t afford. First-home buyers with a 95% mortgage debt will be slammed with more than $1,000 in weekly mortgage repayments – that\u2019s a recipe for disaster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFirst-home buyers are being conned into thinking that it\u2019s better to have an insurmountable debt than to pay off someone else\u2019s mortgage. But what\u2019s really going to happen is they\u2019ll be forced to forgo weekly essentials just to pay their mortgage and will face deep financial stress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLabor is asking our nurses and teachers to spend the bulk of their income on mortgage repayments – how are they supposed to live? It\u2019s reckless to push people into loans they can\u2019t afford while the banks cash in. Forcing first-home buyers into housing stress isn\u2019t the answer to the housing crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t a housing fix – it ignores the real causes of the housing crisis. We should cut tax breaks for wealthy property investors and build affordable and social housing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWithout tackling the root causes of the housing crisis, Labor\u2019s scheme will only inflate property prices further – locking even more people out of home ownership. That includes essential workers, such as nurses and teachers, who are already struggling to afford homes near their workplaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAustralia\u2019s housing market is rigged in favour of wealthy property investors and banks and it\u2019s failing everyone else. Tax concessions like negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts allow investors to outbid first-home buyers – leaving young people and low-income workers behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis government has a chance to take real action on the housing crisis. But instead they are making the problem worse and risk shutting an entire generation out of home ownership altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Number of employees by occupation – Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, August 2025 | Australian Bureau of Statistics<\/u><\/a>, for the November quarter 2024 and includes all employees regardless of employment status (e.g. full time or part time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Weekly earnings by occupation – Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, May 2023 | Australian Bureau of Statistics<\/u><\/a>, for May 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, May 2025 | Australian Bureau of Statistics<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Monthly Median dwelling sales prices by Capital City are taken from the Corelogic (now Cotality) Property Market Indices report, for May 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Albanese Government\u2019s First Home Guarantee Scheme, which allows first-home buyers to purchase a home with a 5% deposit, will break the bank for many, according to data compiled by the parliamentary library. The analysis looks at the affordability of repayments under the scheme on the median house and unit price in each Australian capital … Continue reading “Labor\u2019s 5% deposit scheme: A recipe for housing stress, data reveals”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35219,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35218\/revisions\/35219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}