The Albanese government’s plan to allow all first-home buyers to purchase property with just a 5% deposit from 1 October 2025 has sparked major criticism — including from former ATO director and accountant Nitin Saby, who argues the policy will damage personal wealth and national productivity.
Saby says the scheme pushes young Australians into decades of debt while propping up an already overheated property market.
“It doesn’t create industries, exports or productivity — it simply inflates housing prices and keeps younger Australians chasing the same patch of land,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
While the government claims the initiative will shave years off deposit-saving time and avoid an estimated $1.5 billion in LMI costs in its first year, Saby argues the deeper economic impact is being ignored.
He warns that using a home as a base for a business would trigger zoning issues, insurance hikes and CGT complications — meaning the government “subsidises debt to buy bricks, but punishes Australians who try to turn those bricks into enterprise.”
Saby proposes an alternative: applying similar support to startups and small business creation. Government-backed capital, simplified tax pathways and procurement opportunities, he says, would actually build industries, create jobs and lift national productivity.
Industry feedback echoes his concerns. NAB premier banker Hayden Way notes that more buyers with low deposits simply drive bigger bidding wars, worsening affordability — not improving it.
Saby says the broader risk is cultural and economic: “We’re teaching a generation to tie themselves to mortgages, not opportunities. The result is rising inequality, lower productivity and a nation rewarding speculation over innovation.”