First home buyer grants continue to boost home loans

First home buyers continue to dominate in news about the property market, as the proportion of first home owners as a percentage of all new home loan volumes reached 26.9 per cent in February, its highest since this data was first collected in 1991.

The federal government's moves in October last year to double the first home owners grant to $14,000 for established dwellings and tripling it to $21,000 for new built homes has driven higher levels of activity by first time buyers. Meanwhile investors represented just 24 per cent of loans in February, compared with nearly 31 per cent in July 2008.

It is expected that first home buyers will continue bolstering the market for home loans until the middle of the year, when the federal government's boost to the first home owners scheme is scheduled to end on June 30.

Read full article