ECEC educators front of line for NSW home equity scheme

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) employees are taking advantage of a new scheme, run in conjunction with the New South Wales Government, which supports frontline workers and single parents who have saved just two per cent of a deposit for their first home to enter the property market.

Teachers, nurses, midwives, police officers and paramedics are also able to qualify for the scheme under which the government will contribute up to 40 per cent of the cost of a new home or up to 30 per cent of an existing home.

20 people have been pre approved under the program, with thousands more lodging expressions of interest in the shared equity program.

Up to 3,000 places will be available each year for two years under the $780 million package. The initiative is part of a suite of housing affordability measures the Coalition will take to the March state election, after they were costed in the last state budget.

“We can’t have an Australia that can’t house its children…we want to make sure our key workers from the city to the bush are able to get their keys to their first home,” said NSW premier Dominic Perrottet.

The scheme is separate to the government’s first home buyers scheme, and requires only a small upfront deposit, no lenders mortgage insurance, and no interest required to be paid on the government share.

Key workers, singles over 50 and single parents with dependent children are eligible for the scheme. Singles must have a gross maximum income of $90,000, or $120,000 for couples where one or both are key workers, while the maximum value of the property that can be purchased is $950,000.

In the case of a sale, the government gets back 40 per cent of the value of the home at the time of sale.

To learn more about the scheme, please see here.