Home ownership 'out of reach for young Australians', says Wannon MP

He spoke against the Help to Buy Bill shared equity scheme proposed by Labor in parliament on Wednesday.

Mr Tehan said the federal government had failed young Australians by failing to adopt a number of schemes the Coalition introduced.

"The Coalition has supported almost 60,000 first home buyers and single parent families into home ownership through the home guarantee scheme," Mr Tehan said.

"We protected the residential construction industry, with more than 137,000 home builder applications generating $120 billion of economy activity.

"We provided $2.9 billion of low cost loans to community housing providers to support 15,000 social and affordable dwellings, saving $470 million in interest payments to be reinvested in more affordable housing."

Mr Tehan said his former government also helped more than 27,000 first home buyers accelerate their deposit through the first home super saver scheme.

"Now any of these schemes could have been picked up by the government and they would have delivered outcomes," he said.

Mr Tehan said the government needed to act because there were so many people who were struggling to save enough money to buy a home.

"If you're a young Australian at the moment, you are seriously now asking yourself - will I ever be able to own a home and that is not a question we want young Australians to be asking."

Mr Tehan said people across the board - not just young people - were faced with the same hurdles.

"They look at the affordability question and they say 'that is now beyond me'.

"The medium wage will not support you being able to buy a medium value house and that is wrong.

"We need the government to act.

"They need to do better and they need to do better quickly."

The bill would assist low to middle income earners buy a home by accessing an equity contribution from the government.

Member for Higgins Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah spoke in favour of the bill.

"When you cut through all the noise and the hysteria and the rage - or the faux rage, or whatever it is - and the finger-pointing, the only answer is supply, and that is what the Albanese Labor government is focused on," Dr Ananda-Rajah said.

"Indeed, we are pumping in $25 billion over the next 10 years to improve housing in this country.

"The Help to Buy scheme is a plank in the Albanese government's raft of reforms aimed at addressing housing affordability.

"It directly addresses the time it takes to save for a deposit and the high cost of repayments as a proportion of your income. Help to Buy could make home ownership a reality with as little as a two per cent deposit.

"As a shared equity scheme, Help to Buy will bring home ownership back into reach for 40,000 Australian households - 10,000 per year over the next four years."

Warrnambool's Maddie Kellet, who was previously forced to live in a tent due to a lack of affordable rentals, said she feared she may never own her own home.

This is despite working 50 to 60 hours a week on a dairy farm.

The 19-year-old pays $430 a week in rent.

"It took me just over a year to have my application accepted after more than 150 house applications," she said.

Ms Kellet said she was always worrying about whether she would be able to pay the rent and bills.

"When the lease ended in January, I could only choose to renew it because finding another rental was too difficult," she said.

Ms Kellet said it was disappointing her dream of owning a house was out of reach.

"I am trying my best to save money but its almost impossible and I feel as though I'm living paycheck to paycheck," she said.

"Even with the first home owner grant and other government funding, it's still really difficult to save enough to be eligible for a house."

Her comments came after The Standard revealed in January the amount of income you needed to earn to buy a house or unit in Warrnambool had jumped as much as 20 per cent over the past year.

To be able to afford a house in Warrnambool - where the median price is $571,000 - a household would need to earn $112,455 a year. That's 14 per cent more than a year ago.

Portland's Kathy Lauria said it was disappointing the dream of owning a home was out of reach for so many.

"It's disappointing for young people and it's disappointing for us old people knowing that our grandkids don't have an opportunity to purchase a house," she said.

Ms Lauria said she believed building smaller houses on smaller blocks may help with the lack of affordable properties.

Warrnambool's Keith Mills said he too believed the dream of being a home owner was slipping out of reach for young people.

"The comparisons with buying a house and what the wages are seem really out of proportion to me," he said.

"It wasn't as bad when we bought a house in about 1967.

"I could rent a house for $8 a week but we could buy a house for $10 a week, once we found a deposit."

Melbourne's Noel Artis said he believed there needed to be an overhaul of the tax system.

"Generation Y and Generation Z, they're definitely locked out," he said.

"It's the way the tax system is structured - we need to remove negative gearing and capital gains tax exemptions."

Portland's Mark Anderson is 41 and said he had accepted he would never own his own home.

"It's out of reach for the majority of people," he said.