By Poppy Johnston and Savannah Meacham

Competing pitches to first-time home buyers and one-off tax relief have jostled for airtime at official federal election campaign launches for the major parties.

Under a Dutton coalition government, first-time buyers of newly constructed homes would be able to deduct interest payments against their taxable incomes on the first $650,000 of a mortgage.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Australian citizens, young and old, were being locked out of housing.

“When Australians have heard me say that I want to be the prime minister for home ownership, for home affordability, for home accessibility, I mean it,” he told a campaign launch in western Sydney.

A first-home buyer with a taxable income of $120,000 and a $650,000 mortgage at 6.1 per cent interest would be about $12,000 better off a year, the coalition said.

Labor has promised to build 100,000 homes reserved for first-time buyers only.

Australians would also be able to buy their first dwelling with a five per cent deposit, with the government guaranteeing the other 15 per cent.

The Albanese government would expand the existing help-to-buy scheme by increasing property price limits to reflect the average in each state’s capital city and removing caps on places and incomes.

Australians had a clear choice on housing, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.

“Under Labor, more homes and smaller deposits, under the coalition and Peter Dutton, fewer homes and higher house prices,” he said.

Coalition campaign spokesman James Paterson said his party would help lower demand for housing and boost supply of new dwellings.

“We have some very strong policies out there to reduce demand, including immigration, because that is a driver of demand, and banning foreign investors for two years from buying Australian homes,” Senator Paterson said.

Greens leader Adam Bandt said cracking down on investor tax handouts and capping rents were the real solutions to the nation’s housing affordability woes.

“Labor tinkers while prices soar, the Liberals will send prices even higher,” he said.

The opposition has also entered the field on tax relief with a one-off tax rebate of up to $1200.

Under the coalition’s $10 billion tax plan, eligible taxpayers earning up to $144,000 a year would be in line for a rebate when they lodge their return for the upcoming financial year.

Mr Dutton claimed his plan would do more to ease cost-of-living pain than Labor’s tax cuts of up to $268 in 2026/27 and up to $536 each financial year after.

Labor ministers countered with the argument taxpayers were better off with their party’s long-term relief.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sent Labor’s campaign down the slipway in Perth on Sunday.

He and Mr Dutton decided to make things official earlier than usual in a bid to stay in public view ahead of a slew of public holidays for Easter and Anzac Day.