Page 2798 - Week 09 - Thursday, 27 September 2007
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the supply of land, providing affordable house and land packages and demonstration villages, and introducing a range of home purchase arrangements, such as a land rent program.
A fundamental element of the government’s action plan is to increase land supply. This builds upon a range of existing announcements to increase the supply of land, such as the release of an additional 500 residential blocks, which increased the release of dwelling sites to 2,672 in 2006-07, and we will continue to roll out this accelerated land release program.
The government has completed the estate planning for Franklin 2 and will release over 360 blocks onto the market by the end of this year. This estate will be the first to include a more diverse mixture of block sizes, with 15 per cent being smaller, and more affordable blocks scattered throughout the estate. The government is bringing forward the release of an additional 1,000 house blocks in this financial year in Casey, increasing the overall number of new residential to 3,200. The government is also working hard to accelerate other land releases with planning documentation for Franklin 3 and Bonner 1 underway.
Concept planning for suburbs 1 and 2 in Molonglo is well advanced. The Minister for Planning, Mr Barr, recently announced that the draft variation to the territory plan and the draft amendment to the National Capital Plan have been released for public consultation. The first blocks in Molonglo should be released in 2008. The government is pleased to see the speed with which the first englobo land release at Macgregor west is progressing. Further englobo land releases will be made regularly throughout this and coming years.
The principles embodied in the action plan have been embraced at a policy and legislative level. The 2007-08 statements of intent for both the land development agency and ACTPLA incorporate the objective of delivering affordable housing outcomes. Reforms to the territory plan and planning legislation through the Planning and Development Act passed by the Assembly, along with business systems improvements in both those authorities, will improve land release and planning approval systems and streamline planners’, developers’ and builders’ land supply pipelines.
To cater for smaller, affordable housing, ACTPLA has released a planning guideline on compact block housing for new estates to allow for the introduction of the affordable house and land packages. This will provide opportunities and market entry points for housing choice for small house blocks of up to 250 square metres.
The action plan introduces new house and land packages priced between $200,000 and $300,000. As part of the plan, the government will particularly target supply of blocks in the $60,000 to $120,000 price range, well below what is currently available in the market. The initiative is designed to introduce a range of new affordable housing options for Canberrans. In particular, it will introduce stand-alone two-bedroom housing similar to the types of products that have proven popular in the states.
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