The ACT Government will release land to deliver more than 21,000 new homes by the end of the decade, according to the Indicative Land Release Program (ILRP): 2024–25 to 2028–29, published today. More than 866,000 m² of land will be released by 2029, and nearly 97,000 m² of land in 2024–25.

“Canberrans want more homes to buy and rent,” Chief Minister Andrew Barr said. “The ACT Government has a practical plan to get it done.”

The Master Builders Association (MBA) of the ACT warns, however, that the land would not be shovel-ready for many years: 58 per cent of the 2024–25 land commitment was from a site being re-released, and was not likely to be fully available for new house construction for several years. CEO Michael Hopkins noted that the latest land release came after one of the lowest releases in years: 1,883 dwellings this financial year.

The opposition, meanwhile, argues that the government could have doubled the amount of land it released at any time, and that the current policy deprives Canberrans of choice, while the ACT Greens claim projected public housing is insufficient.

What is in the ILRP

The annual ILRP, accompanying the budget, identifies ACT Government land that may be released over the next five years, for residential, mixed-use (co-location of housing with commercial activity), commercial, industrial, or community and non-urban purposes.

The ILRP promises that 21,422 new homes will be built by 2029, primarily in new suburbs: Macnamara (Ginninderry), Jacka (Gungahlin), Denman Prospect, Whitlam, and Molonglo.

5,107 new homes will be built in 2024–25. 427 (8.4 per cent) would be single dwellings, and 4,680 (91.6 per cent) multi-unit.

This would bring the total number of residential dwellings to 198,200; the government estimates Canberra’s population will grow by more than 48,000 by 2030.

“Canberra is a fantastic place to live, which is why we’re seeing tremendous population growth projected,” Mr Barr said. “This plan aims to provide more housing for Canberrans, where they want to live.”

Urban infill or constraint?

Chris Steel, ACT Minister for Planning, said that 70 per cent of housing would be built within Canberra’s urban footprint.

“We are balancing the need for more housing supply whilst maintaining a great quality of life for all Canberrans,” Mr Steel said. “We will continue work on the design guidance necessary to enable more housing where people want to live, including well-designed low-rise ‘missing middle’ homes like duplexes, townhouses, [and] row houses in established and new suburbs.”

Opposition leader Elizabeth Lee, however, argued that the plan would deprive Canberrans of choice.

“The Labor-Greens government have been embarking on an infill agenda that does not meet the community’s needs and wants,” Ms Lee said.

90 per cent of housing in the ILRP would be units, Ms Lee observed, even though 85 per cent of Canberrans want to live in a detached house, according to the 2016 Winton report into housing. (The ACT Government has rejected Liberal calls for an updated version of the report.) Likewise, Ms Lee said, less than 1 per cent of applicants have gotten land in recent land ballots: in 2022, for instance, 7,400 applicants were made for 51 blocks in Macnamara.

“There is clear demand for detached housing, which this government has not catered for,” Ms Lee said. “Not only that, but they’re going to make it even worse in the next five years.”

Noting that the government had doubled its land release targets, Ms Lee said this showed they could have released more land at any time in the last two decades, but had not deliberately done so; nor had they even met their own land release targets. As a result, she argued, Canberrans had “every right to have huge doubts and to have no faith or confidence” that the government would meet those targets.

Public housing

At least 608 of the homes built in 2024-25 will be community, public, or affordable homes: 136 affordable homes in Gungahlin and Denman Prospect; 432 community housing dwellings in Denman Prospect, Gungahlin, Moncrieff, and Molonglo; and 40 public housing properties in Molonglo.

“This year’s ACT Budget prioritises increasing housing supply for all Canberrans, especially those experiencing disadvantage,” housing minister Yvette Berry said.

However, ACT Greens deputy leader Rebecca Vassarotti, current Minister for Homelessness and Housing Services, argued that the Labor policy was insufficient: nearly 3,200 applications have been made for public housing, but Labor would only build 40 public homes by the end of the decade. She spruiked the Greens’ $2.2 billion election commitment to build and buy 10,000 public homes over the next decade, 540 in the first year. (ACT Labor claims the Greens policy is unachievable.)

“Enough of these homes will be built in the first four years to give every single person on the public housing waiting list a safe place to sleep,” Ms Vassarotti said.

“We can’t solve the housing crisis by continuing with business as usual.”

Non-residential land releases include:

Real estate and building sector

The Real Estate Institute of the ACT (REIACT) welcomed the government’s commitment to increasing the supply of available land for new housing — “Something we as an industry have been advocating for as the only viable long-term solution to maintaining a supply of affordable housing in the ACT,” CEO Maria Edwards said.

“The challenge moving forward will be to ensure the blocks are priced at a point that will ensure not only first-home buyers and families can afford to buy and build, but that for the multi-unit sites there is sufficient financial and legislative incentive for larger-scale institutions to invest here in the Territory.”

The MBA ACT’s Michael Hopkins welcomed the government’s recognition of the need to increase land release.  

“If the Government wants to provide more housing for Canberrans, it should be mindful of the impact and cost of new building regulations such as tree clearing laws, the price of new land released to the market, and the impact of ACT Government taxes, fees and charges,” Mr Hopkins said.