Isabelle Lane Property Reporter from the New Daily reported on April 27, 2018, that First home buyers are gaining a foothold in Sydney and Melbourne

(Original: https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/property/2018/04/27/first-home-buyers-surge-sydney-melbourne-housing-markets-soften/).
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Isabelle reported that ... "Incentives designed to help first home buyers gain a foothold in the increasingly unaffordable Sydney and Melbourne housing markets appear to be helping."
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"Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows a surge in first home buyers in Sydney and Melbourne since stamp duty exemptions took effect on July 1 2017."

"Buyers Home Base director Julie DeBondt-Barker is a Melbourne-based buyer’s advocate who specialises in helping first home buyers."

"Pretty much all first home buyers are motivated by first home owners grants and the stamp duty concessions,” Ms DeBondt-Barker said.
“Without that assistance they wouldn’t be buying.”

While the housing market in Sydney and Melbourne may have softened recently, Ms DeBondt-Barker says the competition among first home buyers remains fierce.

“The softening isn’t happening so much in the areas where first homebuyers are, such as the newer suburbs. It’s happening in the blue chip areas,” Ms DeBondt-Barker said.

“The further out you go there is a lot of competition still.”

Ms DeBondt-Barker advises first home buyers – who are often “very emotive” – to be realistic about what they can afford.
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“Be absolutely sure that you can afford it and that it’s not going to disrupt your lifestyle, and if the interest rates go up it’s not going to sink you,” she said.
You can read the full article here: https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/property/2018/04/27/first-home-buyers-surge-sydney-melbourne-housing-markets-soften/.