Page 1760 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020
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One notes that during the COVID-19 pandemic and the associate global economic crisis, the government has implemented a range of further measures to protect residential tenants, including commencing a moratorium on evictions for the non-payment of rent and on rent increases for COVID-19 affected tenants and occupants. The government has funded a mediation service and increased legal assistance funding for tenants, and established a process to negotiate rent reductions and provide landlords with access to our land tax credit and rates rebate scheme for reductions in rent of at least 25 per cent.
The amendment also notes that the Real Estate Institute’s Australia’s housing affordability index for the March 2020 quarter, which was released last month, showed that the proportion of income in the ACT required to meet the territory’s median rent was the second lowest in the country, at 19 per cent. The amendment further notes, perhaps in contrast to the situation that the Leader of the Opposition outlined in his brief address, that residential dwelling construction in the ACT is performing strongly. This was reported only this week, in fact, in the Commonwealth Bank’s State of the States report, which showed that the ACT leads the nation for dwelling construction starts. The starts in the ACT now are a full 21.7 per cent above the decade average, in trend terms.
I note that some of the recent activity—activity in the last seven weeks or so—has been spurred on by the ACT government’s announcement of a range of measures to support people to purchase their own homes and, of course, stimulate the residential construction sector. We have done so by reducing stamp duty on new land—single residential blocks—to zero, and stamp duty on off-the-plan apartment and townhouse purchases valued up to $500,000 also to zero. For those who wish to purchase an off-the-plan apartment or townhouse with a value between 500,000 and $750,000, there is an $11,400 stamp duty reduction available.
On 17 June, building on an announcement that I made in March, the government announced that the average rates increase for residential land would be set at zero per cent for the 2020-21 fiscal year, which, combined with the one-off $150 COVID-19 rates rebate, means that over 100,000 residences in the ACT will see a reduction in their rates bill in this financial year. This is, of course, timed as an economic stimulus measure, as we are now officially, according to the Australian government, in a depression. The Australian government is forecasting two years of negative economic growth. That is a depression. A recession is two quarters of negative economic growth. A depression is two years of that, and that is what the commonwealth has forecast.
My amendment also notes that each year the ACT government releases an indicative land release program. This indicative land release program provides information to builders, to potential homeowners and to investors, about the forward land release program. I can advise the Assembly that at 20 July there were 346 single residential blocks available over the counter through the Suburban Land Agency and through the Ginninderry joint venture development. Those blocks start in price at $197,000. As at 20 July 2020, there are 188 blocks available through the Suburban Land Agency and from the Ginninderry development which are priced below $420,0000. That is a threshold that would clearly enable those who are building a house—a reasonably
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