Page 1858 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 1 May 1991
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There was some debate earlier about Canberra's relatively favourable situation on affordability, and I use the word "relatively". It has been the case that we have, on the figures, been in a better position, and our people have been in a better position, to afford to buy new homes. I understand that there were some reasons for this, of course, as part of that affordability index is the income of the person and the ACT has a high average level of income compared with the rest of Australia. Also, of course, the most significant part of any affordability index is the cost of housing. In respect of costs, our land costs are generally much cheaper than anywhere else, and that is one of the benefits of the system that we have. Interest rates, of course, another factor, tend to remain pretty constant across the country. But, in determining affordability, it is the income of the people that has been a fairly significant factor.
If we do have a favourable situation in terms of affordability, we should fight to keep that, just as we fight to keep the green space in our city or the very good schools that we have. Let us see that we keep what is good about Canberra. But, if we just talk about affordability, it leads us into a direction where we can forget what we might call the bottom 40 per cent of the market for whom affordability has no real meaning. Let us look to that 40 per cent, the ones who are feeling the pressure, the ones who have to somehow adjust to very significant increases in private rentals that will put off again, for some considerable period of time, their saving plans to move into their own houses. Let us look at that 40 per cent and see what we can do.
It is quite clear that the market is pressured. Rosemary Follett indicated that there is a vacancy rate of 0.8 per cent in private rentals in Canberra at the moment. That is very significant in creating pressure. But we have not stopped to think - and I am sure that Mr Collaery has not stopped to think - why it is that there is an 0.8 per cent vacancy rate. That is very low. It ought to be up, I believe, to 4 or 5 per cent. The reason for that is clear: In the finetuning we make in releasing land in this city, we just have not been releasing quite enough in recent times.
I suggest to the Minister for Housing that it is time to accelerate somewhat the release of land in this city, because it is clear in that statistic, as it is clear in the people who have been coming to me, that there is a tight squeeze at the moment in home ownership and in the rental market. It is tighter than it ought to be, and it is causing considerable troubles. The Leader of the Opposition indicated that there is a waiting list of applicants - not necessarily of people in homes - of about 4,100 people, and a figure of about 150 new homes a year. With those two figures next to each other, you can see that we are not going to make any impact at all on reducing that number of people needing homes.
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