Coming as it did after figures showing Australia's economy contracted in the March quarter, the announcement of the program signalled the government was looking to deliver stimulus aimed towards industries at risk.

Compared to the broad sweep of the JobKeeper program, and the massive safety net provided by JobSeeker, the government money available for people renovating their home, or buying a new home, is meant to be delivered through both a smaller and finer economic instrument.

The figures Australia received on Wednesday, showing a 0.3 per cent contraction in the three months to March, only confirm the scale of the challenge ahead. Recession is a multi-faceted problem for governments, and keeping the construction industry healthy is one element. The sector will play a major role in the economic recovery. Stimulus to keep up residential construction work is an obvious way for the government to encourage an economic bounceback.

The design of the scheme has had some scratching their heads. There are questions about coverage. To spend between $150,000 and $750,000 on renovations, as it requires, is beyond the reach of many Australians. It's hard to imagine pouring that much cash into renovation projects in regional Australia, let alone many parts of the major cities.

The grants are for people earning less than $125,000 or couples on less than $200,000. Such spending levels are significant investments for individuals on these incomes. It will emerge, in the coming months, whether the program is too narrowly or awkwardly tailored.

Such limitations are presumably deliberate, and if that's the case then we're left to speculate on the reasons. It may be the government wants to simply revive, or prevent the cancellation of, those renovation projects that homeowners were heading into when COVID-19 struck.

In some ways, the program puts a trademark Liberal Party stamp on economic stimulus. The policy shares the burden of spending with others outside the government - in this case, home owners paying for renovations. It's geared towards middle, home-owning Australia, and plays on the old suburban aspiration of finding, or creating, a dream home.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was overt in appealing to that sentiment in announcing the scheme. A transcript from his press conference at Googong on Thursday morning shows he used the word "dream" four times in two sentences, including this one: "$25,000 dollars to support those families and those Australians whose dream it was to build their home or to do that big renovation, a dream that they thought might have been crushed by the coronavirus."

In case the suburban vibe of the policy announcement wasn't clear enough, a home owner politely asked Mr Morrison to move the press conference away from his newly seeded lawn. More suburban Australia it does not get.

An aspect of the policy's design that is true to the Morrison government's recent form is that it makes use of existing mechanisms for delivery. Mr Morrison is clearly not a fan of schemes that require the unwieldy creation of new bureaucracy.

Another question is the influence this stimulus will have, if any, on construction quality. The day before the Prime Minister announced the HomeBuilder scheme, the NSW Parliament passed building reforms introduced in the wake of high-profile Sydney apartment defects. The state government declared a new era for building design and construction, and a step forward in rebuilding a transparent and accountable construction industry.

States and territories have struggled to get the settings right to keep up building quality in recent years. Strict regulation will be needed to make sure the stimulus doesn't aggravate the problem.