First Home Buyers Receive Budget Boost

Under a number of new initiatives announced by the government in the 2021-22 Federal Budget overnight, first home buyers are set to be offered a helping hand.

As property prices rise at the fastest month-on-month rate in 33-years, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has announced three key measures designed to assist those looking to get a foothold in the Australian property market.

The government’s already existing first home buyer’s scheme will be boosted by another 10,000 places. This sees buyers only need a 5% deposit to secure a home. The other 15% needed to avoid paying the lender’s mortgage insurance (LMI) will be fronted up by the government, and eventually repaid.

Further, a new initiative sees single parents able to purchase a home with just 2% deposit. Named the Family Home Guarantee, eligible single parents will be able to build a new home or purchase an existing home with a minimal deposit. As above, places are limited – with applications to open from July 1, 2021 and will offer 10,000 places over four years.

Finally, the First Home Super Save Scheme will allow first-timers to access as much as $50,000 from their superannuation to purchase a house. The scheme has been expanded from the previous limits of $30,000

A 110-year-old Colorado estate that has hosted Frank Sinatra and Lyndon B. Johnson just slashed $10 million off its price tag.

The 12,000-square-foot manor house—with 25 rooms—and its five accessory dwelling in the alpines of Evergreen was relisted on Friday asking $16.8 million, down from its initial $26.8 million price in 2023.

The sellers, Richard and Pamela Bard, who paid $1.3 million for the “legacy property” named Greystone Estate in 1992, have shopped it around on and off for the past 20 years, according to agent Jessica Northrop at Compass Real Estate.

Richard Bard, CEO of his own private equity firm, has “hosted many corporate events and retreats where important business is discussed but they are also able to relax,” Northrop said. “Greystone has a special way of making people feel at ease.”

Bard said “it’s not a casual effort” to sell. He said it’s difficult to find a buyer with the facilities to “take care of it.”

The Bards intend to move closer to their children in Denver.

Before the Bards, Greystone Estate had several eras—as a summer house, a guest ranch and a business base—since it was built in 1915 by Genevieve Phipps, an industrialist’s daughter.

Phipps, who spent her inheritance on the land, built the 54-acre summer escape with the “elegance and feel of a fine Adirondack mansion combined with a mountain rustic style,” according to an online record of the estate’s history.

Its heyday, arguably in the 1940s to 1980s, saw Sinatra, Johnson and Groucho Marx come through its doors, when its owner William Sandifer, a socialite and one the Empire State Building’s architects, operated a guest ranch out of the place.

The Bards, who used a carriage house on the property as their company headquarters, completed Greystone’s full modernization in 1997. They also opened up the living and dining areas to receive more light, raised the ceiling on the upper level and combined several rooms to create a primary suite.

They replaced an outdoor pavilion and its helipad with something more suitable for their daughter’s wedding in 2001, according to Northrop.

The main 25-room manor includes a wine cellar, bar, gym and library.

The additional structures, which include a cottage, a log cabin, a pool house, a carriage house and a pavilion and guest house, surround the pool area and overlook acres of aspen groves and mountains.

First Home Buyers Receive Budget Boost

The Federal Budget announces new initiatives for first-time buyers.

The 25-room mansion was built for an heiress and later belonged to a socialite and architect on the Empire State Building.