The great Australian dream of home ownership for many is literally just dream with soaring house prices, Sydney is continually mentioned in the top 20 most expensive cites in the world to buy property in. Over the past decade we have seen a substantial increase in housing prices and a reduction in housing affordability in Australia. Home ownership in Sydney has been a hot topic of discussion for many years and housing affordability has been a key policy goal for government. Both state and commonwealth governments have funded numerous housing assistance programs over the years. With the one goal in mind to help first home buyers achieve the great Aussie dream by buying their first home.
In September 2008 the Global Financial Crisis came to a head with the US government allowing the investment bank Lehman Brothers go bankrupt. Up to that point it was always assumed that the US government would bail out any bank that got into trouble, this was not the case and banks were now deemed ‘risky’ (Elliott, The Guardian, 2011).Governments all over the world scrambled to prop up their economy to ‘ride out the storm’. The Rudd governments First Home Buyers Boost was just one part of the economic stimulus package rolled out to hopefully reduce the chances of Australia facing the same fate that the United States of America did when the Global Financial Crisis hit.
I will discuss the First Home Buyers Boost scheme that was implemented to encourage first home buyers into the housing market whilst we dealt with the Global Financial Crisis that was hitting the United States of America and other countries around the globe. I will also discuss how the NSW First Home Owners Grant and the Commonwealth First Home Buyers Boost schemes combined affected the demand and supply for property in the sub $500 000 housing market in 2008/2009 particularly within the suburb of Gladesville.

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