In Melbourne What they're saying . . .

In Melbourne

Not all home-buyer assistance is gone

You say house prices posted the strongest quarterly growth in more than half a decade "despite dwindling government grants" ("House prices surge ahead of rate rises", February 2). By that you mean, of course, the first-home buyer grants which were worth a few hundred million dollars annually. But the other grants, christened "negative gearing" and "halved capital gains tax", which amount to several billion dollars a year, are still with us.