Page 5461 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 8 December 2009
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somewhere in, I believe, the high 30 per cents. Similarly, the Real Estate Institute of Australia’s latest rental analysis shows that the proportion of weekly family income required to meet rental payments in the ACT was 17.1 per cent, against a national figure of 25 per cent. Unfortunately, again, I do not have the New South Wales figures, which perhaps would have been more telling in relation to that.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Le Couteur, a supplementary question?
MS LE COUTEUR: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, what are you doing to look at long-term affordability issues? I am referring here specifically to bus transport available to the affordable houses and solar access to the housing.
MR STANHOPE: I thank Ms Le Couteur for the question. Ms Le Couteur, there are a whole range of initiatives that we are pursuing—60 of them or in excess of that—and I do not dispute, Ms Le Couteur, how in the context of affordability everything at the end of the day is connected to everything else. Issues around quality of housing, the capacity to run the house more cheaply than we currently do as a result of issues like solar access, sustainability, green star rating and access to public transport are all part and parcel of affordability, just as they are, of course, of growing a sustainable city.
In the context of other things that we are doing, I have mentioned before that this is a very genuine partnership. In the context of what we are doing, we have entered into a very significant agreement or partnership with CHC Affordable Housing to deliver 1,000 new affordable dwellings for rent and for sale over the next 10 years. That is quite stunning and over the course of this last year is a program that has grown significantly. Indeed, the latest development by CHC Affordable Housing on Flemington Road will provide in excess of 100 units at affordable rates, and each of those units, of course, has already been taken up.
In relation to OwnPlace, another initiative that we are pursuing—it is being pursued by the LDA accepting its responsibility—239 blocks or houses have been taken up through the OwnPlace scheme with the LDA. Twenty have now been completed, 81 are under construction and work will commence on others.
The government has also negotiated and is at the point, I believe, of settling arrangements with a provider in relation to a private rental initiative where we are hoping to deliver between 200 and 400 new rental dwellings through a program that is also outlined in our affordable housing strategy.
MR SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mr Seselja?
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, how many blocks will be available and ready to build on in the Molonglo valley by the end of this financial year?
MR STANHOPE: In the Molonglo valley? The Molonglo valley, of course, represents the newest development front in the ACT. Gungahlin will continue to be the most significant development front in the ACT for some time. Gungahlin has just passed 40,000 in population; it has another 40,000 or thereabouts to go. Molonglo will
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