Let first-home buyers drain super to buy: Senate committee

A parliamentary committee chaired by prominent superannuation critic Andrew Bragg has upped the ante on the Coalition’s super for housing policy, suggesting first-home buyers should be able to withdraw all their super to buy a house or use their retirement savings as collateral to help borrow.

Modelling provided to the committee by actuaries Michael Rice and Jonathan Ng found a 35-year-old who used $160,000 from their super to make a 20 per cent deposit on a $800,000 unit would have an apartment worth $1.2 million by retirement, but if that money had been kept in super it would have appreciated to $319,000.