First-home buyer hurdles may be getting worse

The outgoing RBA Governor Glenn Stevens says the entry hurdles for first home buyers "may be getting worse".

He suggests it was likely parental assistance was "almost the only way" for some to enter Sydney market, in an exclusive interview with The Australian and The Wall Street Journal.

Also read: The real reason first-time buyers are being locked out the property market

"I think that a lot of people of my generation are actually going to find themselves, if they haven't already, helping their children into the housing market because that may be almost the only way that their children can enter the Sydney market anyway," he said.

"That, of course, means that for people of my age, that the wealth we think we have in our house, actually, we don't have quite as much as we thought because we're going to have to give some of it to the next generation."

The 58-year old suggests that there are a lot of generational issues in the housing area that need resolving.

Also read: First home buyers have become collateral damage

"I think that's actually a bigger question than questions like is there a bubble or not, that sort of thing that people tend spend a lot of time be debating.

"That said its hard to be that cohort about trying to enter the market, there's always been a hurdle.

"It may be getting worse, but there's a lot of things happening here, about where we want to live and how far out we want to live," he said.

"There are decision about zoning, transportation, infrastructure, and all those sorts of things that go to make up what's I think a pretty complex problem."

Stevens suggested that you need to own a home to pass the equity.

Also read: 7 hidden costs of buying a property

"Of course if we come from a rental household ourselves then we're not going to have that equity to pass to the next generation and certain types of disadvantaged therefore are going to be perpetuated into that next generation," he said.

"A bit of food for thought, but I don't have the answers to all these problems," he advised.