Page 4081 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 13 December 2006
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commitments made by individual investors in the ACT rose by 4.6 per cent over the last 12 months. These are particularly interesting figures because, whereas the value of housing finance commitments by individual investors was up by 4.6 per cent in the ACT, it was down by 5.2 per cent in New South Wales, down by 1.3 per cent in Tasmania, down by 0.3 per cent in South Australia and up by 1.5 per cent in Victoria, the next highest in Australia. So there you have it again: the difference between the ACT and New South Wales in relation to housing finance commitments by individual investors is 10 per cent—a 10 per cent differential in investment between Sydney and Canberra. These statistics disprove the claims by some that investors are fleeing the ACT market due to all those self-interested concerns such as rates and, most particularly, land tax.
Post the housing boom, the trend in housing affordability continues to improve in the ACT. The latest home loan affordability estimates from the Real Estate Institute of Australia show the ACT has the most affordable home loans of any place in Australia, largely due to our strong growth in family incomes and, one has to say, despite the Liberal Party interest rate rises of the last 18 months, which have pushed up the price of a long-term loan for an average household on an average mortgage in the ACT by $74,000—
Opposition members interjecting—
MR STANHOPE: The Liberal Party hate this. The cost of an average mortgage on an average family as a result of those interest rate rises of Gary Humphries and the Liberals is $74,000.
Mr Smyth: It’s Gary Humphries’s fault?
MR STANHOPE: Gary Humphries is always out there prattling on that it’s all the commonwealth’s responsibility that the ACT has got a strong economy. Try and get Gary Humphries to talk about interest rate rises. Try to get him to talk about his promise before the last federal election: “a vote for Liberal is a vote for no rises in interest rates”. Have you noticed that you cannot get Senator Humphries to talk about his $74,000 contribution to the average mortgage on the average Canberra household? Gary Humphries’s legacy is a $74,000 bill to the people of the ACT.
The latest data from the Real Estate Institute of Australia shows that the median house price in Canberra has risen by 1.3 per cent. (Time expired.)
MS MacDONALD: My supplementary question is this: Chief Minister, how does the data from the ABC and REIA demonstrate that there is a high level of confidence in the ACT economy?
MR STANHOPE: Thank you very much, Ms MacDonald. One of the incidents in relation to the ACT—one of the misapprehensions or misunderstandings—that need to be addressed is the extent, the behaviour or the trend in relation to housing affordability and house prices in the ACT. It is the case that a year or so ago Canberra had the second highest median house price of any place in Australia, after Sydney—a reputation that was not particularly helpful in terms of the attractiveness of the Australian Capital Territory. Of course, it did impact on affordability.
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