The proposal announced by the federal Coalition to bust open super for first home buyers housing deposits would add tens of thousands of dollars to housing prices and would undermine the retirement savings of all Australians.

Any additional money Australians can take out of super via the scheme announced today would almost immediately be gobbled up through housing price surges as analysis shows it could hike the nation’s five major capital city median property prices by between 8-16%,

The proposal is not what super was set up to do and would torpedo super fund investment returns for all Australians – forcing funds to carry more cash and be less able to invest for the long term – which has been the key in delivering members’ bigger nest eggs.