<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>327176</docID> <postdate>2024-08-20 17:09:53</postdate> <headline>Teachers, nurses save for more than decade to buy home</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-318506" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IMG_7745-resized-e1718324033904.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>Research shows how many years it will take workers to save for a deposit on an average-priced home..</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Poppy Johnston</strong> in Canberra</span></p> <p><strong>Teachers, nurses and childcare workers face more than a decade of saving to buy a home on their own, analysis shows.</strong></p> <p>It would take 12 years for a primary school teacher and 11 for a registered nurse to save a deposit for the average-priced Australian home, Parliamentary Library modelling commissioned by the Greens shows.</p> <p>It would take a solo childcare worker, typically earning $61,300 a year, a whopping 31 years to save for a deposit.</p> <p>Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather said it was impossible for single parents working in the 10 most common professions to buy a home and secure financial independence.</p> <p>"I don't think we should have to live in a country where a single mum who happens to be a teacher can't afford to buy a house or has to end up saving over a decade to get a 20 per cent deposit," Mr Chandler-Mather told reporters on Tuesday.</p> <p>Individuals paying off a mortgage in the 10 most common occupations were also likely to find themselves in housing stress - paying more than 30 per cent of their income on repayments - based on long-term wage and house price growth trends.</p> <p>Housing affordability remains a fractious political issue, with Labor struggling to legislate its help-to-buy home equity scheme and build-to-rent tax concessions because of opposition from the Coalition and Greens.</p> <p>Both parties want different policy solutions - rent controls and more social housing are favoured by the Greens, while the opposition wants to boost home ownership by allowing buyers to dip into their super.</p> <p>Phasing out negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount is on the Greens' wishlist and was recommended in Tuesday's Blueprint Institute report.</p> <p>Gradually unwinding the "overly generous" tax concessions granted to property owners will "discourage speculative investment in housing", the think tank said.</p> <p>Labor said it would make no changes to negative gearing, in the lead up to the last federal election.</p> <p>Improved pathways to import building professions, more modular construction and planning reform were also suggested by Blueprint Institute in Tuesday's report.</p> </body>