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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (16 February) . . Page.. 171 ..

MR STANHOPE: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister. In Estimates Committee hearings in 1998 the Chief Minister revealed that the Government had provided incentives to promote the development of the Waldorf Apartments by FAI Property Management under the Government's inner city revitalisation project. At those hearings, in answers to subsequent questions without notice and in answers to questions on notice, the Chief Minister revealed that the suite of incentives offered under the scheme included remission of change of use charge, waiver of any lease variation component of the development applications and waiver of stamp duty on the sale of residential units valued at less than $250,000. In the case of the Waldorf Apartments, the value of the stamp duty waiver on residential units was in the potential order of $700,000. Now that the Waldorf project is finally complete, can the Chief Minister tell the Assembly how many of the Waldorf units are owner occupied and what the total value of the stamp duty waiver on the sale of residential units was?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I need to advise Mr Stanhope that there was a change of portfolios in August last year and that I am now the Treasurer of the ACT. I neglected to send him a letter to that effect.

Mr Quinlan: Congratulations.

MR HUMPHRIES: Thank you. It is a dubious privilege. If Mr Mackerras is any guide, I will not be in the position much longer either. Mr Stanhope referred to the Civic revitalisation policy, which offered various incentives for redevelopment of office space in the city to address the excess of supply of office space and a very high vacancy rate in the Civic area. As members know, we have taken the step of offering the incentives that Mr Stanhope referred to by way of waiver of duty and other concessions to provide for a better take-up rate of office space and conversion of that space to other things, particularly to residential accommodation. For residential units, the waiver of duty was previously limited to units valued at $250,000 or less. That has now been extended to include a phased waiver of between $250,000 and $350,000. Between those limits some concession on stamp duty is available. Above $350,000 no concession is available.

The program has already had some significant successes with the transformation of a number of inner city buildings. Mr Stanhope referred to the Waldorf. There has also been the Melbourne Building as well as the Saville Park Suites on Northbourne Avenue. The change to the threshold will build on those successes and improve the viability of projects by encouraging developers to include in their plans live-in apartments, currently in strong demand, particularly in Civic.

I can advise that as of 31 January there were waivers granted for 122 units at the Waldorf Apartments, and the value of that concession was $673,400.

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