Greater government assistance would have encouraged more first-time home buyers to purchase a home sooner, according to Mortgage Choice’s annual First Home Buyer Survey.

The survey showed that 64.4% of new homeowners who purchased within the last two years, would have bought their first house at an earlier time had they received more financial support from the government.

A little over half of the respondents also said that current level of government support provided to first homebuyers in their state was not sufficient. Almost half (47.4%) said they would like to see stamp duty fees abolished for first homebuyers, while a further 35.5% said they would like to see grants for established properties re-introduced.

“The government has actively spoken about the ongoing issue of housing affordability in a lot of public forums,” said John Flavell, chief executive officer, Mortgage Choice.

“But while there is a lot of talk about housing affordability and its impact on the broader community, there is next to no action.”

While the low interest rates on home loans are set to attract borrowers, property prices continue to rise across most markets, which is putting off first homebuyers.

“It is becomingly increasingly difficult for first homebuyers to save the deposit they need in order to purchase a property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,” explained Flavell.

“Worse still, it is widely expected that low rates will continue to keep heat in the property market, causing property prices to grow even more over the coming months and years.”

Across the combined capital cities, property prices rose 8.3% over the last financial year. Sydney and Melbourne were the standout performers, with the two cities recording property price growth of 11.3% and 11.5% respectively.

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