Page 3082 - Week 08 - Thursday, 25 June 2009
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I acknowledge that the minister for housing has said that he is working on a joint equity or shared equity scheme. There is some merit in that. I hope that does get off the ground. I understand that he plans to launch it in the coming months; I think there are some opportunities there to encourage people into homeownership, albeit a portion at a time.
But I would also state that another very important scheme, which I do not think has been maximised or promoted as well as it could have been by Housing ACT, is the buy your own home scheme. If we have tenants who are earning in excess of $100,000 a year, there is a fair chance that they are capable of putting together a deposit or negotiating with Housing ACT to acquire their property through instalments or outright through independent loans.
Mr Hargreaves: We sell 60 a year.
MR COE: The minister says 60 a year. It is my understanding that it is more like 35, 27 or something in the last 12 months. I am pretty sure it was 27 or 35 or something in the last 12 months.
Mr Hargreaves: This year?
MR COE: Sorry, in 2007-08. With that in mind, if there are 10,500 tenancies in that same period and we are selling only 27, 35 or whatever the number is, I do not think that is a high enough strike rate. It needs to be promoted more and it needs to be promoted properly.
Another issue in Housing ACT’s space is what we do with many of the housing complexes in and around the city and up and down Northbourne that are not quite in the state that they should be. I think especially of areas in Braddon, along the continuation of Barry Drive; it is Currong Street, I think. We need to make sure that those properties are delivering the best return to the tenants who live there and also to the ACT government.
If it turns out that we are better off selling those properties and investing that money into social housing elsewhere that will provide a better service to tenants and a better return to the people of Canberra overall, that is something that we should be investigating. I predict that Mr Barr’s referral to the planning, public works and territory and municipal services committee may have something to do with the rejuvenation of some properties along Northbourne Avenue. If not, there may be opportunities for the committee to look into that, because some of those properties are tired and some of them are a huge expense to Housing ACT.
Mr Hargreaves: They are heritage.
MR COE: Some of them are heritage listed; I do understand that. But there are ways that we can reinvest money that was acquired through selling off some of those properties so that we will get a better return for Housing ACT and the taxpayers in Canberra.
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