Australia spent $20bn on first-home buyer support over a decade – and pushed up prices, report says

Study finds policy focus on demand has been one-sided' and resulted in a widening wedge of inequality'

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Australian governments have poured more than $20bn into supporting first-home buyers in the past decade, the cornerstone of one-sided" housing policies that set the country apart from more balanced policies abroad, a new study has found.

The paper, published on Thursday by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, compared Australia's policies with those in six European nations and Singapore. The researchers found local schemes have failed to arrest a slide in overall home ownership and benefitted those already in the market, worsening social equity.