Smaller deposits to soon help Australians buy a home

First-home buyers will soon be able to purchase a property with a smaller deposit after Labor's signature reform cleared another hurdle.

Labor's Help to Buy and Build to Rent schemes secured the support of the Greens following months of debate, but will go back down to the lower house to be rubber-stamped after passing the Senate.

The Help to Buy scheme is a shared equity program that will allow 10,000 first-home buyers each year to purchase a house with a contribution from the government.

Housing Minister Clare O'Neil welcomed the end of the political stalemate on the reforms, but said the laws wouldn't immediately fix problems in the sector.

"This is not a silver bullet, and it was never meant to be," she told Nine's Today program on Tuesday.

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said the policies sounded nice but were really "just tinkering around the edge".

"There does come a point in every negotiation where you've pushed as far as you can," she said.

"We have tried so hard to get Labor to shift on soaring rents and negative gearing, but we couldn't.

"We couldn't get there this time around."

Opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar argues banking regulation has made it harder for first-home buyers to secure a loan.

The coalition has been angling to weaken "responsible lending" obligations imposed on banks after the global financial crisis that it believes are too cumbersome and create barriers for first-time buyers.

"If there's one message I want Australians to take away from my remarks today, it's that the coalition will not accept a generation of Australians not having the same opportunities that previous generations have enjoyed for home ownership," Mr Sukkar told the National Press Club on Tuesday.

Independent senator David Pocock urged support for the schemes, saying they would help people who can't rely on the bank of "mum and dad" to get them into the housing market.

"We have to ensure that we have the right sort of housing in the right places, so ... Australia can still be living in a country where it doesn't matter how wealthy your parents are, in a country where people can still believe in the egalitarian ideals that so many Australians have held dear, for generations," he said.