The almost perennial issue of allowing Australians to use their superannuation as a first home deposit has been raised again, this time by another mortgage broking company.
The managing director of mortgage broking network 1300HomeLoan, John Kolenda, has suggested new rules be modeled on the Singaporean system – something which lifted home ownership to 90 per cent compared to 66 per cent in Australia.
"At the moment we are making it harder than it needs to be for first home buyers to get a roof over their heads because we are forcing them to save 9 per cent of their income for super before they can even start saving money for a home deposit," he said.
Kolenda claimed it was ridiculous to make someone just starting out in life save for their retirement before they had even secured a home.
He said forcing someone to pour money into superannuation was effectively making them invest in the volatile share market instead of property because superannuation funds were hugely overweight equities.
