Page 222 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 6 March 2007
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demand and affordability of mortgages. The affordability of mortgages is heavily dependent upon interest rates, which are now at their highest levels in five years, with further increases mooted. Despite all this, unfortunately, we do not have a national housing policy. The absence of a national housing policy integrated with the broader economic and social policy agenda is a major impediment to dealing with issues of housing affordability.
In recognition of these and other factors, I asked the housing affordability steering group to make recommendations to the government on initiatives to increase the supply of affordable housing in the ACT; to identify and assess the factors that promote housing affordability that can be influenced by the ACT government; to examine the effectiveness of initiatives to address housing affordability currently being undertaken in other jurisdictions and their appropriateness in the ACT context; and to liaise with relevant organisations and agencies examining housing affordability, including, but not limited to, federal and state housing and planning ministers, industry groups and community organisations.
The steering group has provided me with preliminary advice and, as I have said, is due to report shortly. It has met with many stakeholders and conducted extensive research. The group is examining initiatives to improve access to affordable housing at all levels, covering home ownership, private rental, aged accommodation, community and not-for-profit housing, public housing and supported accommodation. The group is particularly focusing on allowing the housing market to operate as efficiently as possible through ensuring a sufficient supply of land; maintaining a planning and land release system that supports the delivery of an adequate supply of land and is responsive to change in demand, substantial growth in the community and not-for-profit housing sector; making efficient and effective use of public housing assets; and supporting the delivery of adequate supplies of private rental properties.
In relation to home ownership, the objective is healthy operation of the private market to allow it to deliver a range of products in locations across the ACT to facilitate the goal that people on moderate incomes should not have to spend a high proportion of their gross income to purchase housing services. The group is considering initiatives such as land supply, to ensure adequate land is available to meet the demand for residential blocks; the land supply pipeline; improvements in the measurement, monitoring and management of the land development house building pipeline as a means of enhancing the land supply process; using the land development pipeline to develop a supply strategy that is capable of responding reasonably quickly to changes in demand; and affordable house and land packages to increase diversity in the market by incorporating new, affordable products.
The group is examining a range of initiatives, including the introduction of over-the-counter sales of land at a set price; house and land packages meeting affordability criteria as soon as an adequate supply of land is available; and conducting regular, en globo land sales through the LDA following the hopeful success of the west Macgregor release. The group is also examining a number of other measures that would not unduly affect the market, such as a shared equity scheme through a not-for-profit provider and a land rental scheme. Targeted adjustments to the existing stamp duty concession scheme are also being considered.
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