First homebuyers, renters centrepiece of housing pledge

The federal government has extended its Help to Buy shared equity housing program. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)

Australians struggling to get into affordable rentals or break into the housing market are being offered help through a variety of schemes announced in Tuesday's federal budget.

However, there's little comfort for social welfare groups calling for billions of dollars more in investment, with no further big-ticket items on the cards.

The federal government has allocated $33 billion in measures to address the housing affordability crisis.

Under the shared equity scheme, the government contributes up to 40 per cent of the purchase price. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS)

It includes increasing the income and house price caps for the Help to Buy scheme, which helps first-home buyers crack into the market by subsidising their deposit, meaning they need less money up-front. 

The shared equity scheme, under which the Commonwealth contributes up to 40 per cent of the purchase price, will support 40,000 people, with more than five million properties falling under the increased housing caps.

Price caps are higher for people in capital cities and regional centres, which include properties worth up to $1.3 million in NSW, $950,000 in Victoria and $1 million for Queensland and the ACT.

There's also more than $50 million to boost the development of pre-fabrication and modular construction methods to expedite builds and make it cheaper.

Apprentices are being offered a $10,000 sweetener to stay in housing construction and there will be a ban on foreign investors buying existing homes.

But Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie called for a further injection to tackle the housing crisis after calling the government's $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund investment vehicle a good start.

"We need to be able to keep investing in growing social and affordable housing," she told AAP.

Anglicare Australia had called for a $50 billion investment in social and cheaper rentals over a decade, on top of raised welfare payments to make housing affordable.

Anglicare had called for a $50 billion investment in social and cheaper rentals over a decade. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)

Master Builders Australia called for more action to bring down construction costs.

Labor has long searched for political cover over the thorny housing issue.

The federal government has faced off against the Greens who stalled legislation in the Senate to push for more funding and scrap investor tax breaks worth billions of dollars.