The Canberra Times has the thrilling news that after deciding to discard the transparency of land auctions the ACT Government decided that a good price for land direct to favoured developers in 2009 should be nearly half the price charged in 2007.
At auction in 2007 the Government sold housing blocks in Canberra’s north for almost $80,000.
But two years later, it sold up to 460 comparable blocks directly to the developer for an average of $44,565.
The Government blames the difference on the global financial crisis, which it said caused prices for undeveloped land to plunge to their lowest point in years.
Yet a packed auction a month after the direct sales in June 2009 drove up block prices in Canberra’s south to $117,000 significantly above the reserve price.
Because we all know real estate values have been plummeting right? And the Village Building Company has been passing these savings on right?
Errr…