Federal budget housing affordability measures will make the problem worse, Tasmanian-based economist Saul Eslake says.
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Tuesday night's budget included more than doubling the number of places each year under the Home Guarantee Scheme, which cuts the deposit needed to buy housing from 20 per cent to 5 per cent.
The budget also introduced a 10,000-place Regional Home Guarantee - broadening the focus beyond the capitals - and doubled places in a scheme aimed at helping single parents into home ownership.
"The housing affordability measures in the budget will make housing affordability worse, albeit only at the margin, by allowing a small number of people to spend more on housing than they otherwise would, whilst simultaneously exposing them to greater risk of finding themselves owing more than their house is worth if house prices fall a bit after interest rates start rising, which they (interest rates) will," Mr Eslake said.
Mr Eslake has long been a critic of home buyer grants, arguing they lead vendors and builders to push up prices.
Tasmania's Liberal Senators, in a joint statement, said the measures would help more Tasmanians own their own homes.
Mr Eslake said he did not expect residents of Liberal-held Tasmanian swing seats Braddon and Bass would have many complaints that "as always, the pork is liberally sprinkled around".
He said there were also measures for Labor-held Lyons this time.
He said the Liberals would have hopes of gaining Lyons in the coming election, and would probably need to given the potential for seat losses in other parts of Australia.
"By contrast, as always, there's almost nothing for Hobart and surrounds, given that the two seats down here haven't sent a Liberal MP to Canberra since 1990," he said.
Mr Eslake said Tasmania would not gain from the upwardly revised estimates of GST revenue because almost all of that was going to Western Australia.
He said that was "despite WA being by far the richest state in the country, and the only government in the country - and one of very few in the world - that's running budget surpluses under the dirty deal imposed by (Prime Minister Scott) Morrison in 2018 ...," he said.
He said the deal would "force the federal government to add almost $19 billion to its deficits over the six years to 2025-26, and shortly thereafter force the other states and territories to shoulder the burden of appeasing that state's greed".
Mr Eslake said the budget was "inevitably, a pre-election affair".
"But, despite being blessed by substantial windfall revenue gains, this budget isn't as much of a spendathon as some previous pre-election budgets have been," he said.