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The Ginninderry joint venture: there will be 250 dwelling sites released in Macnamara in 2022-23. Photo: Ginninderry.

The ACT Government will boost its land release program as part of a package of measures in next week’s budget to increase the amount and range of housing in response to the highest population growth in the country, sky-high home prices, low vacancy rates and steepling rents.

The ACT’s population grew by 23 per cent in the decade to 2021 and is on track to hold 500,000 people by the end of this decade.

The government has faced increasing criticism from the opposition, the property industry and the community sector to act on what many call a housing crisis in the Territory.

READ ALSO Opposition and Government at loggerheads over public housing spend; Berry says ‘do your homework’

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the ACT’s nation-leading population growth had placed pressure on the housing market.

“In this Budget, the government is acting to further improve affordability and the supply of housing in the Territory. From targeted stamp duty cuts through to the construction of hundreds of new public housing dwellings – we are taking further steps to ensure Canberrans have access to safe and secure homes,” Mr Barr said.

He added that the ACT Government would work in partnership with the new Commonwealth Government to increase the supply of public, community, affordable and privately owned housing.

“The ACT Government has been building more affordable homes per capita than the national average,” Mr Barr said.

“We want to see more Build to Rent projects in the ACT, and the government will be pursuing private investment into these projects over the coming years.”

READ ALSO Landlords need to move with the times – their tenants have had to

Along with plans to roll out more dwelling sites this financial year, the government will issue a prospectus for BTR projects pitched at both the private and community sectors.

It also plans to work closely with the Albanese Government on promised housing affordability measures that would deliver 600 properties, as well as continue talks on the redevelopment of the former CSIRO Ginninderra site and the renewal of the AIS precinct.

The budget will also include a further $30 million for the Growing and Renewing Public Housing program to add 140 more new dwellings to deliver 400 additional dwellings by 2025.

Indicative land Release Program for 2022-23. Image: ACT Government.

The government is planning for an increase of around 30,000 dwellings in the ACT over the next five years, which will increase the total housing supply in Canberra from around 180,000 dwellings to around 210,000.

The 2022 Indicative Land Release Program (ILRP) will account for a little more than half of these, with a record 16,417 dwelling sites to be released over the next five years.

The rest will come from private land release, BTR, Commonwealth social housing and land, and public housing.

This financial year, there will be 738 more sites released than indicated in last year’s land release program, including 513 new mixed-use releases in Kingston, 105 medium-density dwellings in Lawson and 80 in Holt.

There will also be high-density releases in the Gungahlin (300), Belconnen (625) and Woden (200) Town Centres.

But the planned release of 500 single residential blocks in the new Gungahlin suburb Kenny has been deferred to 2024-25, while 400 blocks will now be released in Jacka, with a further 280 planned for 2023-24, although the 200 listed for 2021-22 didn’t eventuate.

READ ALSO Tradies urged to report safety risks, injuries to avoid painful compo claims

There are also top-ups to releases in Whitlam, where 434 blocks will be released, 134 more than scheduled, and 250 in Macnamara in the Ginninderry joint venture.

Further down the track, there are more releases in the new suburbs of Gungahlin, Belconnen and Molonglo but also 800 homes in North Weston, 400 in 2025-26 and 400 in 2026-27.

There are also 650 dwellings slated for East Lake in 2025-26 and 1200 for “urban intensification” in the unstated areas of North and South Canberra in 2026-27.

The program also includes Block 3 Section 57 in Turner (270 dwellings) in 2022-23 to pilot a Build to Rent project with an affordable rental component.

The government intends to release more sites for BTR and the prospectus says it will offer a range of incentives, including land tax concessions, deferred Lease Variation Charge payments or subsidies toward affordable rental components, but it has ruled out concessions on rates or the Foreign Ownership Land Tax Surcharge.

It will also offer a time-limited LVC discount to eligible BTR developments that include a minimum of 15 per cent of dwellings as affordable rentals, which must be managed by a registered Community Housing Provider for at least 15 years.

It will also entertain proposals from applicants that already have sites, with the first round opening in November.

READ ALSO Watch: what does the Region Media head of HR do every day?

The budget also includes $57.3 million for public housing repairs and maintenance, in addition to the $80 million allocated in the 2021-22 Budget.

A total of $1.4 million has been set aside to start insulation and electrification upgrades to public housing properties, to cut energy costs for tenants and support the government’s climate reduction targets.

The government says that since the Growth and Renewal Program was introduced in 2019-20, more than 219 new dwellings have been built, 93 dwellings acquired, 101 land sites purchased and 343 end-of-use public housing properties sold.

In 2022-23, it expects to have more than 700 dwellings under construction, including the delivery of 193 completed dwellings.

The budget will also have measures to help people buy a home, including more stamp duty cuts as part of the government’s tax reform program.

It will raise the lowest conveyance duty tax threshold for residential owner-occupiers from $200,000 to $260,000, reducing duty on homes between $260,000 and $1,455,000 by $1120, when combined with ongoing tax rate reductions.

The eligibility threshold for the Home Buyer Concession Scheme will be increased from $160,000 to $170,000, and will continue to rise by $3330 per child up to a maximum of five children.

The Deferred Duty and Disability Duty Concession Schemes’ price eligibility thresholds will rise from $750,000 to $1 million.

There is also funding to explore potential new policy directions to improve housing affordability for low-to-medium income Canberrans.

This includes an examination of the Affordable Home Purchase Scheme, BTR projects with affordable components, investigating a shared equity scheme, demonstration housing projects and relevant policy changes, ways to enhance community housing, and working with the Commonwealth on the National Rental Affordability Scheme.

Build to rent is good idea. Apartments should be designed to focus on budget conscious renters. It is cheaper to build, maintain, heat and cool smaller dwellings. The environmental impact of the compact housing is much less. Also compact development is easier to place near transport hub, a public school and shops so that renters don’t even need a car. By attracting private investors government saves on construction costs. Also private investor will better manage their stock.

Not everyone wants to live in an apartment- more houses need to be built- but why build 1 when you can build hundreds on the same block – it’s just greedy

You will own nothing BUT you can rent from hedge funds

Will the government by creating new sporting facilities or upgrading established ones to cater for the people in these growing communities? We need infrastructure to provide services and healthy lifestyles for our growing community.

biggest factor in animal extinction is urban development. Where is our “hero” Rattenbury in this eh? Just more neighbors’ barking dogs

How about building hundreds of government houses for people who’ve been on the waiting list for years. Don’t buy lower priced houses for sale on the market, but actually build new houses like they used to do.

The gov are good at grandstanding and making “wonderful announcements” with spin etc but they don’t care and they don’t deliver much

Increase the Affordable Rent for Seniors properties that is a needed option for many

So what happens when we cannot expand anymore will the government try to carve up our national parks for housing? It is a sad state to live in these days 🥺

Mel Macca plenty of land available. what about all those horse paddocks along the monaro between hindmarsh and the jail.

Mel Macca that is why they want to ban horse races. They want EPIC that land would make many appartments.

Loonce Yu I think they are privately owned, at least for now

Ray Zak more apartments, sounds about right

More badly built flats with no soundproofing. Because everyone likes to listen to their neighbours party while it rains in their living room.

While ever the 70% of all new houses being multi unit developments, many many families will miss out. Fact is many people want houses, not all but far more than are being given that choice by this current labor and greens gov.

Yep – and the act government trumpet loudly that because apartments are selling, they are what people want .. regardless of the fact that they are all that people are able to purchase.

Of course it’s not enough. It’s Barr papering over the cracks of his government’s two decades of failings

They’re putting a roof over the heads of the developers, as they are the ones who get the land, and extract every last dollar they can squeeze from it. They don’t build affordable housing, they build as much as they can get away with.

Macro economics shows that new houses should cost less than existing, otherwise people will not build. With all the red tape and cost to build, plus rising building costs, why would anyone build at this time?

There are three government houses in my street and they have been empty for around 3 months now. Lawns and so called gardens are a mess and the backyards are overgrown. In the neighbourhood there are 5 empty blocks where once a fluffy home stood. Still not sold and they are large blocks also overgrown with bush and rubbish. Housing Minister is just an inept useless waste of space.

Ray Zak Has it occurred to you that the houses may be empty because they contain asbestos? Or maybe they need repairs? I have just sold a property in Queanbeyan that was empty since January for renovations. It went on the market at the end of May and I accepted an offer within a week. The sale was settled last week.

Gertraud Bell they do not have asbestos they have been checked. It is just an inept Minister who doesn’t have a clue. People lived in them for years until they moved.

Need to put people into empty government houses and not force others to move because the land is more valuable sold to build an obsolete tram system.

Valerie Foster yes and the only way the Labor mob can be in government is by acquiescing to the Greens and their obsession with the Rattenberry Cho Cho.

Valerie Foster How is it obsolete exactly? Facts, not preceptions please.

Benjamin Rose because it is inflexible at getting around the city can only go fro A to B and B to A. Plus wherever built the areas on the side are turned into corridors of high rise and loss of green spaces.

Valerie Foster It’s called a trade off. With light-rail and trains you are trading flexibility of movement for greater capacity to move people around. They’re also working alongside the buses to complement each other.

Canberra has tons and tons of green space with space reserved everywhere for road duplications, mass transit corridors etc. The NCDC nailed that down in the 1960s and 1970s.

Spend a day driving around town or seeing Canberra on Google Earth and you’ll quickly discover that we have no shortage of green space.

3-6 stories is “high-rise”? You better visit Melbourne and Sydney – true examples of high-rises everywhere.

Benjamin Rose they removed the buses so the tram is the only way to get in to town plus destroyed a working bus system

Valerie Foster Which bus routes were removed? I hope you’re not suggesting that routes throughout Canberra were axed because of the light rail, that would be an absurd statement.

Benjamin Rose because in many cities in Europe the trams don’t run on rails but use virtual tracks and consequently can go anywhere. No rails no overhead wires.

So dumb the way our teams operate

Ray Zak That’s great, but, how does that make Canberra’s implementation of light rail obsolete? A well-anchored bit of steel on the ground lasts decades longer than the toughest of asphalt used on roads and isn’t an issue in a planned city like Canberra where space was set aside for things exactly like light rail.

These maps from the 1976 NCDC publication “Intertown Public Transport” clearly show that light rail is not some recent “Lefty-Greens” idea and show that even conservative Federal governments back in the day were keen on the idea and allowed the NCDC to develop Belconnen, Woden, and Tuggeranong with light rail in mind so when the population got high enough to justify the expenditure they could build it with relatively few headaches.

Time for some people to jettison this narrative that light rail is some trendy environmental thing – it simply isn’t. There’s a library of evidence at 255 Canberra Avenue that proves it.

Benjamin Rose the bus system was changed quite dramatically including the one which went from kippax to Tuggeranong it now takes a change in civic. School buses were changed my daughters bus went from stopping out of foreign affairs to a five minute walk and wasn’t straight through these are only a few. Buses were stopped from gunghalin forcing the use of the tram and payment of parking to actually catch it.

Valerie Foster I live in Gungahlin and I just love the tram!

Gertraud Bell the bus is more versatile as it can take me into other suburbs.

Valerie Foster I hope you realise that you can combine buses and tram!

I live 1km from the nearest tram stop, which is not too far to walk. However, there is a bus stop about 200 m from my house, so I can hop on the bus and get off at the corner nearest to the tram stop.

There are a number of buses around the corner from the Gungahlin tram terminal going to surrounding suburbs as well as Belconnen. I really don’t see any problem.

2 mil for a 3 beddie. Now that’s affordable!!!

Land releases with your small blocks they don’t provide a quality of life. Those blocks Will still be auctioned off an obscene price And with the price of actually building including the off chance the building company will collapse or use a clause in the contract to cancel and sell on for more. No confidence.

Fact Is you’re lucky to get a block with ballots receiving thousands of applications for every hundred blocks. Canberra is no longer the Australian dream

Philip Stewert 71 blocks last time and 12300 applications

The problem: it’s getting harder to own your home because investors are accumulating more and more properties and driving up prices. Barr’s solution: Build-To-Rent! The investors must be rubbing their hands with glee.

Martin Budden you are delusional if you think this is due to investors lol. Investors have left the market.

Martin Budden yep… less land needed if they minimise the need… knocking down structurally sound homes isn’t helping

Martin Budden you have no clue

Jorge Gatica I’m willing to learn, can you explain please?

Martin Budden Here’s how many properties investors hold in Aus out of interest: 1 investment property – 71% (1.57million) – increased by 2.3% over the last year 2 investment property – 19% (418,000) – increased by 2.7% over the last year 3 investment property – 6% (129,784) – increased by 3 % over the last year 4 investment property – 2% (47,469) – increased by 2.2% over the last year 5 investment property – 1% (19,861) – increased by 1.8% over the last year 6 or more investment property – less than 1% (20,756) – increased by 2% in the last year. This is from https://propertyupdate.com.au/how-many-australians-own-an-investment-property

Martin Budden Have you not heard about the proposed changes to tenancy laws that remove a landlord’s right to terminate a lease, unless tenant is in breach of the lease? Build to rent, my foot! I wouldn’t touch that with a barge pole. In fact, if I owned a rental property in the ACT, I would immediately put it up for sale, although my philosophy has always been to let a good tenant stay for as long as they wish. I just won’t be forced by any government though!

Gertraud Bell landlords can still kick out bad tenants, and they have no need to kick out good tenants, so it shouldn’t make any difference to a good landlord.

Martin Budden There are plenty of reasons why a landlord may need to terminate a lease! Take this situation for example, a couple decides to spend a year or more travelling around Australia and rent out their home during that time. They will not be allowed to terminate the tenants’ lease on their return! Similarly, my partner and I plan to spend two years overseas, but this will mean that we have to sell up, simply because we will not be able to terminate a lease!

Gertraud Bell that’s what a fixed term lease is for. Obviously.

Gertraud Bell, rubbish. Do try reading the document before commenting.

That doesn’t come under the ‘no cause eviction’ ban. An owner wanting to move into their own property counts as cause, so as long as they give notice and don’t try to break a fixed lease (which they already can’t do) this won’t stop them. When I wanted my tenants to leave so my sister could move in (they were a wonderful family who took care of the house and I would gladly have rented to them forever if I didn’t need it for family) I signed a statutory declaration stating that a member of my immediate family would be moving in, which is still what will happen after the proposed law changes.

The no cause evictions apply to things like landlords kicking out a current tenant because a $200 per week increase would not be legal but if you boot the tenant and get a new one you can charge whatever you want. It prevents things like a landlord kicking a tenant out because the tenant tells them the mould in the carpets is making them sick, or requests repairs.

As long as WITH cause evictions are protected and available, preventing no cause evictions is a good thing, and I say that as both a home owner and a tenant with awesome landlords. People should feel secure in the home that they are properly caring for and paying for. That doesn’t mean they can stay forever, but they deserve notice of change and valid reason.

Martin Budden If only! A landlord won’t be able to terminate a lease, even at the end of a fixed term, unless the tenant is in breach of the lease!

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