Balloting Bonner Blocks

Hi Aurelius, from what I can see the borders of the ACT are not infinte, there is a huge amount of space in the ACT that is a reserved in some way and cannot be developed (reseans for which would take a rather lengthy discussion), and will remain that way. Hence my statement that there is a finite amount of land available for the local council to exploit. Cheers

random said :

urchin said :

Let’s face it, these developers buy up all the land, stick butt ugly houses on them and drip feed them to the market.

Developers do not have a monopoly on ugly.

No they do not. Check this one out:

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/1-whim-street-harrison-canberra-kitchen/14139223518511?lid=167483780&prid=1392235185

urchin said :

Let’s face it, these developers buy up all the land, stick butt ugly houses on them and drip feed them to the market.

I expect that the uniform houses in the new Village Building Co. development in Watson will look a whole lot better than most suburbs do. It seems that wherever blocks are sold individually, the new owners try to outdo each other for most hideous McMansion: one has a towering Grecian portico, the next has an inexplicable alpine roof, the next is a blocky monument to fallout-shelter brutalism.

Developers do not have a monopoly on ugly.

Pandy said :

When I Were a lad, I walked off the street, looked at a map at blocks that had been sold and said: “I’ll take that one” that was under 20 grand. Ay, and you try telling that to the young people of today.

Yep, we did that for our first home in Nicholls back in 1999. We even had the block secured with $0 deposit for a couple of weeks to boot. Once our $1000 holding deposit was paid we didn’t settle for a further 4-5 months until the day before building actually commenced. Them were the days!

Our block was $73K.

Things sure have changed a bit, haha.

Steveu,
Whilst I’d love your argument to be a valid one, I look around and I do not see finite land available. I see huge tracts of land the government are failing to develop.
As Gungahlin Al pointed out – until the government releases land in various locations – thus giving purchasers some kind of real choice as to where to build – and releases enough to sate demand, we’re in the situation we’re in.

When I Were a lad, I walked off the street, looked at a map at blocks that had been sold and said: “I’ll take that one” that was under 20 grand. Ay, and you try telling that to the young people of today.

The local council has been doing this for year because they have finite land available, and at the end of the day, when they no longer have the ability to sell off land, they will be in a very dire financial position. By keeping supply low, they force demand, and hence prices rise which yeilds them the opportunity to charge higher rates/land tax. The developers have done very well in the past out of this arrangement too. Also, changing planning laws to allow MDU’s near shopping centres has given them breathing space revenuewise as well, in the rates they get from each unit etc.
I believe at the end of the day they are very well aware that their ability to keep themselves afloat fiscally is not sustainable in the long term for this reason, hence drip feeding the property market.

If the ACT was truly dedicated to providing fair access to new land they would restrict the ballots so that they can’t be exploited as easily.

The following conditions would help significantly:

1. Developers cannot participate in ballots. If there is any land left over *then* they can bid. Let’s face it, these developers buy up all the land, stick butt ugly houses on them and drip feed them to the market. Land banking anyone? If they are truly good builders, customers will come to them with their own land. If they are crap… Well they deserve to go under, don’t they? As it is the only reason many of them exist is because they are sharing in the land monopoly.

2. If anyone decides that they cannot/will not build on the land and/or want to sell it, they can only sell it for the original purchase price or sell it back to the ACT. A number of instances of people buying the land and then putting it on the market again for a premium.

The land itself is damned expensive as it is, we don’t need developers and speculators pushing it up even further.

Aurelius said :

Anyone else know the economic benefit of a ballot?

Government gets more money and better PR by (a) constraining supply; (b) appearing to increase supply by releasing in small chunks; and (c) getting great PR from people queuing and from those lucky enough to score a block for some outrageous price.

But I guess that would be stretching the term ‘economic’ to include the political benefit to government.

Oh and a key aspect of these ballots is at the very last line of the LDA’s post:

“When can I start building?
You can commence building after the LDA has completed construction on the site and you have settled. Contract Date Ranges for Bonner Stages 2 and 3 will be accessible through this website once they become available.”

Which is likely to be a good year away…another good way the government has discovered to take upset people away from media gaze.