The government is looking at extending the Welcome Home Scheme announced in last year's budget, Prime Minister Helen Clark has confirmed.
The Welcome Home loan scheme allows home buyers to borrow $150,000 with the Government acting as guarantor in lieu of a deposit.
The Government said last week it was worried about the decreasing rate of home ownership, which has gone down from 75 per cent in 1991 to 65 per cent today.
Miss Clark said the Government was also investigating "shared equity" schemes, where the Government or private partners stumped up part of the equity for a deposit that was later repaid when the house increased in value or was sold.
"It all comes down to money in the end," she said.
"There's an awful lot of things to spend Government money on at the present time and at the same time people want us to do things like address business taxation so you've got to find what's got the highest priority."
However, National's housing spokesman, Phil Heatley, said the Welcome Home scheme had been a failure and for every loan take-up the Government spent more than $1000 in advertising.
He said answers to written parliamentary questions showed the Government spent $1,790,658 marketing the scheme.
National earlier criticised a proposal by the Green Party to introduce a capital gains tax in an effort to make housing cheaper.
The tax, with an exemption for family homes, is one of the Greens' proposals to stop wealthy foreigners buying property in New Zealand and driving up the cost of housing.
Green MP Sue Bradford said yesterday the country was in danger of becoming "just a holiday home for billionaires" and the home ownership dreams of thousands of young New Zealanders were being dashed.
But National's finance spokesman, John Key, said today the belief that a capital gains tax would help the situation was a delusion.
"Such a tax has not made housing more affordable in countries that have introduced it, such as Australia," he said.
"It would add to the cost of capital, and therefore drive up the cost of rents.
"And internationally, house prices have been rising in countries whether they have a capital gains tax or not."
- NZPA
Government considers extending home loan scheme
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