Molonglo Valley will see a new affordable housing initative under the build-to-rent scheme in Denman Prospect, built and designed solely for Canberran renters, by Capital Estate Developments in partnership with Jega.

‘The Borough’ will be developed over three stages and 370 of the dwellings will be built on the eastern side of Holborow Avenue in Denman North, while 330 units will be built further up the hill.

Designed by four different architects, DNA, AMC, Oztal, and DKO, the dwellings will be close to amenities and public transport, there will be communal spaces for the residents to enjoy and exclusive residents-only areas.

Provisions for temporary businesses including pop-up food trucks, entertainment and community services will also be included in the multi-use precinct.

It is hoped the first stages will be completed in early 2024, and all of Denman North will continue to have mandatory solar panels on every residential dwelling.

Capital Estate Development’s managing director, Stephen Byron, said part of the success of Denman is the affordable housing aspect.

“It was very important to make sure a portion of the houses are affordable. Already 20 per cent of the homes in Denman, 400 out of the 2000, meet the ACT Government’s affordability threshold,” Mr Byron said.

“We see that there’s another part of the market that is being missed and that’s affordable rentals – people who are not yet ready or can’t afford to own their own home but who could afford to rent it, and so the affordability rentals will be 20 per cent below the market rent and they’ll be able to have long term leases for one, two, four or five years.”

He said the precinct is designed with the future in mind, and will incorporate solar panels, EV charging stations, drone landing zones, grey water management, sustainable building materials, and community gardens.

“It’s going to be state of the art and it’s going to think about the way in which people live and the way we embrace technology and our environmentally sustainable future,” Mr Byron said.

He said their ethos is to “be a socially responsible developer that’s committed to helping our community” which is why they’ve made a percentage of the rentals affordable.

“Across the whole suburb, 20 per cent of the rentals are affordable and that’s the highest of any suburb that’s ever been developed in Canberra,” he said.

“Other suburbs, like Whitlam or Lawson, they sometimes aspire for chunks of them to be 20 per cent, but we’ve got 20 per cent across the whole of Denman Prospect.”

ACT Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Yvette Berry, said she was excited to hear about the project.

“As we’ve seen Denman Prospect grow, Denman Prospect and the Capital Estate Group have been looking at different and innovational ways to deliver housing for people regardless of their background so that everybody can have a great place to live,” Ms Berry said.

“I think affordable rental projects like this one are something new for us here in the ACT, but we want to be innovative, and we need to be. The last couple of years have certainly turned housing development, affordable or otherwise, completely on its head and so we need to think differently about how we deliver homes for everyone.”

Director of Project Delivery at Denman Prospect, Nick McDonald Crowley, said he knew they needed to address housing affordability and the build-to-rent scheme for this new housing initiative has come off the back of concepts used at Kingsborough in Kingston.

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