27 July 2010

Family of seven laps up first land rent house

| johnboy
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Our Brave Leader is letting us all know that the first house under the long running land rent scheme has finally been moved into.

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said the home, one of 1000 being built for rent or sale by CHC Affordable Housing under a deal with the ACT Government, was the first of four CHC rental homes to be delivered in Franklin over the next two months.

CHC would build another 77 affordable rental homes on Land Rent blocks in the nearby suburb of Bonner over the next two years.

The cynical might think this is a cunning wheeze, constrict land supply for the benefit of the baby boomers while having a few lottery winners to make good photo ops and an impression of action to actually reduce the cost of housing.

But Mr Stanhope has taken this opportunity to announce he’s convening a round table!

“I am this week writing to a number of organisations which work with Canberrans on extremely low incomes to examine what more we can do as a community to provide appropriate and affordable housing to those struggling in the private rental market,” Mr Stanhope said today.

“The discovery in recent weeks of a number of possibly illegal and allegedly unsanitary and substandard boarding houses, being run out of suburban residences, has highlighted that while considerable advances have been made in tackling affordability over the past three years, there is always room for fresh ideas and fresh thinking.

“For example, I sometimes ask myself why it is that a city that housed so many of its residents in boarding houses and hostels in its first decades now seems to reject these as legitimate housing options.

“I wonder whether we could be encouraging – and properly regulating – different housing models, particularly for those who don’t seem to be captured or well-served by what’s on offer in our private rental market.

“Do we offer enough options for those who cannot scrape together a bond, those who are in town only temporarily for work, or those confronting sudden and unexpected housing crises?”

It would be nice to see something come of this fresh thinking.

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I’m sorry, you lost me at round table. Now I have Monty Python’s Knights of the Round Table in my head. It’s very amusing.

Except the line about eating ham and jam and spam a lot, because I’m pretty sure that ham isn’t vegetarian and I don’t like all that meat product in my headspace.

What a pity Mr Stanhope isn’t more sincere about this issue. Seems to me if he REALLY wanted to do something about the state of ACT’s worsening housing affordabilty, he would release enough land to satisfy demand and not start the price for that land ridiculously high.

When 2000 people register for auction of 100 blocks and 3000 register for ballot of 100 more, the Government is obviously failing in its duty to meet the community’s needs. They are however ensuring a premium is paid for land, housing and rent. Where’s the priority?

A round table?

Should be able to house at least 4 international students @ $150 per week (+ultilies charge) under that!

Stanhope wouldn’t know affordable housing if it came up and bit him on the ass. None of the recent land releases have been anywhere near affordable.

Anyway, if you can’t afford to buy a house, why on earth would you go and give yourself 5 kids???! Some people need neutering..

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