‘Prosperity and security’: Labor offers election sweetener for first-home buyers

Thousands of new houses and apartments built on government-owned sites will be set aside for first-time buyers under a $1 billion state election pledge aimed at getting more people into home ownership.

Victorian Premier Ben Carroll will announce on Wednesday at Melbourne Assembly that if re-elected next month, Labor will build 25,000 homes across Melbourne and regional Victoria on sites already earmarked for publicly funded development. This includes the Arden precinct, the old Footscray hospital and the disused Highett gasworks.

The state government will provide $500 million in land, while the Commonwealth will cover development and construction costs through $499 million in grant funding.

Residences will be built at the public’s expense before being sold at market rates, with only first-home buyers eligible to register to bid.

The scheme is similar to a South Australian program announced in the lead-up to their state election earlier this year, when 7000 of 17,000 new homes built in partnership between the state and federal governments were set aside for first home buyers.

Both schemes form part of the federal government’s $10 billion pitch made to young voters locked out of exorbitantly expensive housing markets before the 2025 election.

According to details of the scheme provided to this masthead, a total of 25,691 new homes will be built and offered exclusively to first home buyers between 2027 and 2034. About 15,000 of the properties will be built on sites already owned by the state’s property development agency, Development Victoria and being readied for construction. The remainder will be constructed on land owned by other government agencies.

The proposed urban development sites are spread across Bayside, Brimbank, Darebin, Hume, Maribyrnong, Melton, Merri-bek, Port Phillip and Stonnington. Regionally, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Latrobe are also earmarked.

Victoria will also receive $2 billion in no-interest concessional loans from the Commonwealth to provide enabling infrastructure towards the development of 66,000 new dwellings in the state.

Carroll’s policy announcement adds to a stark choice between the major parties on housing. Where Labor has changed the state’s planning laws to allow high-rise and medium-density development throughout Melbourne’s middle suburbs, the Coalition wants high-rise apartments limited to an expanded “Capital City Zone” and has promised to restore the appeal rights of residents over unwanted developments in their area if elected on November 28.

The premier will warn on Wednesday that a change in government will see the 25,000 first home-buyer properties scrapped by the Coalition.

“They have opposed Labor’s plans to build more homes, every step of the way. They’ve fought it in Parliament – they’ve even fought it on the streets of Brighton,” Carroll says.

“I want young families to have the prosperity and security that a home can provide.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, addressing the Melbourne Assembly on Tuesday, foreshadowed the announcement of a new scheme for first home buyers, saying the two governments were “working together to deliver projects that put houses in places where first home buyers want to live … bringing that aspiration of home ownership back into reach of more Victorians”.

Grattan Institute housing policy expert Matthew Bowes said the main question about the model was whether it was necessary for governments to play the role of developer instead of selling land to commercial development companies.

He said the seven-year timeframe to deliver 25,000 homes appeared “plausible”, and consistent with the practice of Development Victoria.

“They are taking control of brownfield sites that were previously industrial land and had other uses, remediating them and contracting with a private developer to build housing,” he said.

Victorian Minister for Housing Nick Staikos said the initiative was “massive” for Victorians who aspired to home ownership.

“We are a Labor government, partnering with another Labor government, to ensure young Victorians realise that great Aussie dream of owning your own home,” he told this masthead.

He said that prospective first home buyers would be able to register centrally to access the scheme, put in expressions of interest and bid in competition with other first-time buyers.

Unlike first home owner grants, which have been offered by state and federal governments for decades but tend to inflate the cost of housing, Labor’s proposed scheme is aimed at increasing available housing stock.

“This is a supply measure,” Staikos said. “We are leveraging government land and urban renewal on that land so we can provide opportunities for young Victorians to buy their first home.”