Allowing people to use their super to help buy a house is probably not the best solution

The scheme, introduced in the 2017-18 federal budget to "reduce pressure on housing affordability", is designed to help home buyers scrape together a deposit faster by saving money inside their super funds.

That was three years ago, but in the past few months, it's fair to say the situation for home buyers has worsened in dizzying leaps and bounds.

It's well-known that the government has form for encouraging Australians to dip into their superannuation for reasons other than the very specific, uncomplicated purpose for which the 90s-era arrangement came about.

But it's also clear that in these extraordinary times for all aspects of our economy, the more that can be done to help first-home buyers get a foot in the door of an increasingly unwieldy market, the better.

It's no longer enough to have a good job and a propensity to save money.

The main barrier to people - mainly young people - being able to own a home is the ever-growing size of the deposit that is needed to even consider attending an auction.

Canberra is a particularly ferocious beast in this respect - a city small enough to be able, once upon a time, to reliably predict which suburbs were still relatively affordable, and which to steer clear of for a realistic chance of finding a home.

But this is the case no more: Canberra's median house price is the highest it's ever been, well over $900,000.

In this year alone, there have been at 30 record-breaking sales, with the most recent being in Page and Wanniassa, until recently not among those suburbs where one would naturally expect to cough up $1.26 million for a home.

But there we have it, we are where we are and that's the way the cookie crumbles.

And yet there are persistent cries for the government to step in and do something, anything to ease the pressure.

It's a conundrum for a government that places a hefty value on the Great Australian Dream above almost all else.

Owning a home is both the ultimate signifier of adulthood and, when it comes to retirement, a prerequisite for a comfortable post-retirement life.

Owning a home is more or less the be-all and end-all of living and working in Australia. In theory, that is.

Many people have given up on that dream, for good reason.

Banks may be willing to lend eye-watering amounts to fully employed couples or individuals, and historically low interest rates mean a greater sense of abandon when it comes to plunging into lifelong debt.

But it's still the need for a hefty deposit that stands in the way of so many young people.

Allowing first home buyers to dip use their super to edge their way in is one way to go about it, although there's an equally strong argument for leaving our entrenched and purposeful super structure well alone.

The dilemma is that other incentives, such as the first home buyers scheme (introduced to offset the effect of GST on home ownership) has often had the entirely predictable effect of driving up house prices.

But as we ride what is hopefully the tail-end of the pandemic, it's time to stop encouraging people - home-buyers specifically - to live in the moment, and to look beyond the current situation.

The future is still worth planning for, even if it still feels to some like we're living from day to day.

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