Life
Burning down our Super house
Allowing super to be used to fund house deposits would inflate prices, make housing affordability worse and drain retirement savings. The only winners would be big banks and property developers.
A “fundamentally flawed” proposal by a group of Coalition MPs to bust open super for first home buyers’ housing deposits could hike the nation’s five major capital city median property prices by between 8–16 per cent, a preliminary analysis from Industry Super Australia (ISA) shows.
According to the ISA analysis, allowing couples to take $40,000 from super would send property prices skyrocketing in all state capitals, but the impact would be most severe in Sydney, where the median property price could lift a staggering $134,000.
“Throwing super into the housing market would be like throwing petrol on a bonfire – it will jack up prices, inflate young people’s mortgages and add billions to the aged pension, which taxpayers will have to pay for,” said Industry Super Australia chief executive, Bernie Deans.
Workers should not have to choose between a home or retirement, says ACTU Assistant Secretary Scott Connelly.
“The government should tackle the causes of unaffordable housing – insufficient supply and low wage growth … rather than force young people to empty their super to compete against each other in the property market,” he said.