Page 1107 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 1991
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be granted on properties valued at below $97,000 and concessions will be provided where properties are valued at between $97,000 and $117,000.
The deposit assistance grant and the stamp duty concessions available from the Government provide a good incentive for new home buyers to enter the home purchase market. This will have a positive impact on the ACT economy, particularly the building industry. The initiatives in the package I have just announced provide the framework for the further extension of housing programs when off-budget funding mechanisms become available.
Mr Speaker, I now turn to the staged program of sales of government houses to tenants. This program provides public tenants with the opportunity to own the homes that they have put care and pride into. It also generates more funds that will be used to acquire new rental stock. This means that the Housing Trust will be offering more houses to families on the rental housing waiting lists. The sales program is to be staged, with those tenants having a running tenancy period of 10 years or more able to purchase their homes in the first instance. This criterion will be progressively extended downwards to those tenants with shorter tenancy periods. However, the timing of the extensions will depend on the level of tenant demand; the availability to the Housing Trust of replacement properties; and the overall impact that the program will have on the ACT housing market.
While it will take some time to extend the program to the majority of tenants, it is a major new initiative that will replenish the public housing stock and provide home ownership to public tenants. Tenants can take comfort in the knowledge that the program is now in place, but it will take some time to fully implement it. In announcing a program which allows tenants to purchase their government homes, I refer the Assembly to the home purchase assistance package in which I announced revised eligibility criteria for Commissioner for Housing loans. While some public tenants can afford to finance their purchases through the private sector, other tenants who have low and moderate incomes will also be able to purchase their government homes with Commissioner for Housing loans. The deposit assistance grant and stamp duty concessions will also assist those tenants to enter home ownership.
I will read to the Assembly the criteria that will be used for properties available under this program, so that members will see that this Government is not simply selling off the public housing stock. Firstly, the program is aimed only at separately titled properties. However, rural properties will not be available. Secondly, properties will be sold on an outright sale basis for cash and tenants must make their own arrangements to obtain finance and, if eligible, can apply for a Commissioner for Housing loan. Thirdly, the Commissioner for Housing will reserve the right to refuse a sale where properties have been
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