The good folk over at Macrobusiness have been doing an excellent job over the past week highlighting the ACT Government’s outrageously terrible and damaging policy when it comes to supplying land for new homes (see here, here, and here).
Despite strong population growth, stratospheric house prices, and the ACT Auditor General finding the ACT’s land release program woefully inadequate, the ACT Government announced last week that it would be making the problem even worse by scaling back its land release program. This comes a little more than a month after the limited land release at Lawson saw blocks selling for around $100k over the asking price, at an average of ~$500k per block.
Today the Canberra Times reported that the LDA has decided it will no longer be selling land to developers, giving the Government a complete monopoly on the supply of new blocks.
I personally find this behaviour by the ACT Government unconscionable. The fact of the matter is Canberra is a tiny city blessed with abundant land suitable for residential building, but the Government insists on strangling supply to boost their land sales revenue, putting secure shelter, a fundamental human right, out of reach for an increasingly large segment of the community.
If you care about bringing the Australian dream of home ownership back within reach, then I’d urge you to get in touch with Andrew Barr and your other local members, and let them know.