Christies Beach 
A majority of agents believe the government should be doing more to help first home buyers, with stamp duty relief the favoured option.
According to a recent REB poll, 53.8 per cent of respondents said stamp duty relief was the type of assistance they would most like first home buyers to receive.
Another 15.1 per cent called for first home buyers to be able to access their superannuation, 15.1 per cent wanted grants that were valid for all properties, while 3.8 per cent were in favour of saving assistance.
However, 12.3 per cent said government intervention was wrong and first home buyers should receive no assistance.
According to research by new portal First Home Buyers Australia, new buyers want stamp duty relief and the return of the first home savers account, which was axed by the federal government in 2014.
The return of the first home savers account would be the best long-term solution to help younger Australians enter the market, First Home Buyers Australia co-founder Taj Singh told REB.
“But we would like it to have more flexible features such as locked for three financial years, not four, and the ability to invest the savings in other asset classes through managed funds,” he said.
“We also think instead of freeing up super access, first home buyers should also be able to salary sacrifice a proportion of their wage into this special account, in a similar way to how everyone can salary sacrifice wages into super.”
Fellow co-founder Daniel Cohen said real estate agents would also benefit if the government introduced policy to make life easier for new buyers.
“First home buyers usually are more flexible with certain areas such as flexibility in settlement dates, which can make life easier for the agent and vendor,” he said.
“First home buyers will also be first-time sellers one day too, so if you are building a long-term career as an agent, it’s a great idea to build rapport with first time buyers earlier.”
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