Page 4808 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 October 2010
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get their foot on the first step towards home ownership. For a typical three-bedroom home valued at $328,000, mortgage repayments are reduced from around $523 per week to $317 per week by utilising the land rent scheme. The land rent scheme is increasingly popular; more than 100 affordable land rent blocks have been settled and 404 blocks have been exchanged and are awaiting settlement.
Other initiatives already in place or being developed for households of the lowest 40 per cent of income earners include the availability of shared equity schemes for tenants in public and community housing to enable affordable and progressive home purchase and the provision of a $50 million loan facility to CHC Affordable Housing for the delivery of affordable rental and for sale dwellings. To date, the first 200 community housing dwellings delivered by CHC in partnership with the government have welcomed new tenants or owners, and another 365 dwellings have been put out to the market.
There is also the introduction, through Communities@Work, of a home share program to provide accommodation for low income singles or students and support older people to remain in their homes, and conveyance duty and land payment deferral for first homebuyers. Housing ACT is undergoing a stock restructuring program to increase the proportion of two-bedroom dwellings, including the purchase of new stand-alone house and land packages. Also, there are accommodation options to accommodate workers on a short-term basis and to respond to peaks in industry demand. There are supported accommodation services for the elderly or frail homeless or older people at risk of homelessness; the development of options to implement a program to increase tenancy and clinical support for tenants with a mental illness; and the introduction of a youth foyer model in the territory, linking youth housing with opportunities for employment and training.
In addressing the complexities of housing affordability, the government is tackling the wider issues, which include land release, the land supply pipe line, and planning and building regulation. Significant progress has been made against these objectives, including more than 13,500 residential dwelling sites being released since 2006-07, including the first sites in the new estate of Molonglo. There is a commitment to releasing another 17,000 dwelling sites over the next four years, with 20 per cent of blocks, houses and units in every new estate now reserved for affordable housing.
In addition to the already substantial expenditure on land by the Land Development Agency, over $70 million in capital and $15 million in recurrent funding has been committed through the last budget to support the release of land. The first proud homeowners have moved into 106 affordable dwellings delivered under the OwnPlace initiative and another 141 are under construction.
In conclusion, let me say that the government agrees with the Greens around the importance of affordable housing as a major issue for governments across Australia and for the ACT. We did recognise this issue at an early stage, and we responded with wide-ranging policy action which has delivered, and will continue to deliver, real housing outcomes for hundreds of Canberra families.
There are 84 initiatives across the affordable housing action plan, and the government does not intend to stop there. We are reviewing and monitoring the plan, and we are
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