Page 2911 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 24 June 2009
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Territory and Community CPS Australia in the event of a mortgage default.”.
We need to know the detail of this partnership agreement between the ACT government and Community CPS Australia. I want to know what it is they have agreed to. The CPS site says you can get finance for 95 per cent of your home, but, as was revealed in the Canberra Times this morning, for land rent you can only get 80 per cent coverage.
We have talked about homeowners on $75,000 a year, $50,000 a year and $35,000 a year. If you are buying a $200,000 house—this is the example chosen by CPS themselves and written up in the paper this morning—you have to save 20 per cent of $200,000, which is $40,000. I will congratulate any person on $35,000 that can save $40,000 to apply for this finance. Then, of course, they have to find the stamp duty the government will want.
We have no detail of what the partnership arrangement is. As the legislators in this place, it is quite reasonable for us to know what will happen in the event of a mortgage default. It is unfortunate that the government will constantly shoot the messenger instead of answering questions or addressing concerns raised by somebody who has a view contrary to theirs.
Genworth gave seven good reasons for not supporting the land rent scheme. Apparently they lied. According to the Chief Minister—I do not know where he gets his information from; perhaps he has a ouija board or a crystal ball or perhaps he gets messages from God—the real reason that Genworth did not support the land rent scheme was the global financial crisis, even though Genworth, in their quite balanced letter, support one part of the Chief Minister’s package but choose not to support the other part of the package. It is curious how the global financial crisis affects some people and not others.
My proposed amendment is quite simple. By the close of business tomorrow we would like to see the details of the partnership arrangement with Community CPS Australia, including any special arrangements in relation to the position of the territory and Community CPS Australia in the event of a mortgage default. We would like to know, for instance, if land rent owners will be charged the same rate of interest. We want to know what the terms and conditions are.
I have a 2007 report of the Urban Development Institute of Australia into housing affordability in the Australian states. Because Mr Corbell was so interested in this, I will outline the reasons why we have problems with housing affordability in the ACT. The report states:
Unlike parts of New South Wales, the Canberra residential property market is not depressed.
Remember this is 2007. The report states:
The adjacent graph (Figure 44) shows the median detached house prices in a number of locations across Canberra for 2001 and 2006 and the substantial increase in prices that occurred in the period.
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