HomeStart Finance

1391 The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (24 September 2019). Can you advise whether HomeStart Finance's low deposit loan program is expected to expand its book over the forward estimates?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning): I have been advised by HomeStart Finance:

HomeStart has two options for customers to obtain a home loan with a low 3 per cent deposit (less than HomeStart's standard 5 per cent deposit) – the graduate loan and the low deposit loan. Since 2015 the graduate loan has been accessible to a much larger number of South Australians with 693 loans settled in 2019 compared to 203 in 2015.

HomeStart's experience over many years shows that graduate loan customers, who possess at least a certificate III qualification, represent far stronger credit risks than customers who do not, such as low deposit loan customers.

HomeStart's innovation in linking home finance credit criteria to education has been recognised by the World Bank as a leading global innovation in affordable housing finance.

Accordingly, HomeStart sees the graduate loan product as a far more prudent approach to delivering lower deposit loans to the market than the low deposit loan program which does not have educational qualification requirements. The low deposit loan program is therefore in run-off and the graduate loan program is growing strongly, and has now resulted in more than $1.5 billion in lending, assisting over 5,000 South Australian households to buy an affordable home.