What should be done to help first-home buyers?

The "bring back the grant" argument is the easiest, quickest and most familiar reaction first-home buyers have to help them get a home.

What most people don't understand is that it just fuels higher prices and doesn't fix the underlying problem.

We should instead focus on schemes that encourage and support real savings by first-home buyers in Australia.

This needs to be combined with a thorough review of some of the key drivers of affordability issues such as negative gearing, stamp duty and land supply constraints.

There is one federal government initiative, the First Home Saver Account scheme, aimed at supporting saving by would-be buyers that's not working well and needs urgent attention.

When it was launched in 2008 it was predicted to help hundreds of thousands of Australians. But latest APRA figures show a total of $499.7 million in held in just over 45,000 First Home Saver accounts at September last year.

There are a number of things the government could do to improve the scheme - most notably around reducing the paperwork burden.

Some minor adjustments, such as relaxing the conditions, aided by some smart and effective marketing, may breathe life back into what is essentially a great idea to encourage responsible borrowing.

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