A newly-announced scheme aimed at enabling more people to buy their own homes in regional areas will do little to help first homebuyers to get into the market in Orange, and could push prices up even further, industry experts say.
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The Regional Home Guarantee, unveiled in the Federal Budget this week, will provide 10,000 guarantees per year until 2025 for people to buy or construct a new home in a regional area.
From October, first home buyers as well as those who have owned a home before will be eligible to purchase with as little as a 5 per cent deposit.
But those in the industry say the soaring cost of buying or building new in Orange will prohibit many first home buyers from benefitting from the scheme.
Orange buyers agent Graydon Staniforth there had been a "huge jump" in house prices in the last couple of years.
He said buying land and building a new home in Orange would now exceed $700,000, with rising building material costs putting even more upward pressure on prices.
A quick search of real estate sites shows the cheapest house and land package available in Orange is currently $698,500.
"Any help is great, but in the end they (first homebuyers) have still got to be able to afford it," said director of Peter Fisher Real Estate Hunter Ridley.
"It will help some people get in, but it's pushing young people into a big debt."
By increasing demand, the scheme could also put further upward pressure on house prices, he said.
"I suppose any help to get young people into real estate is good, but keeping people in jobs, supporting them when they have kids, keeping interest rates down - they're the main things long term that are going to benefit young people."
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