Simon Hingston still thanks his lucky stars he bought his house in 2013.
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The 29-year-old public servant paid $383,000 for a modest house and land package in Jacka after a six-month search that saw him raise his budget by more than $50,000.
"I had started off [in 2012] hoping to get a home for myself, my 11-year-old daughter, Taryn, and our labrador for somewhere in the low $300,000 range," he said.
"I soon realised this was not enough and that all I could get for that money would be a unit or a townhouse."
Hingston said he was fortunate to access the tail-end of a first home owners' affordable housing scheme and that the property would have cost close to $400,000 in 2013 without it.
"If I was in the market today I wouldn't be able to afford a property like this; It would cost between $430,000 and $450,000."
Built on a 250-square-metre block, the freestanding 130-square-metre(13.5 square) house has made the world of difference to the family.
"We have about 50 square metres of usable backyard," Hingston said. "You can go outside, we play backyard soccer and there is a trampoline and a vegetable garden.
"Even though we moved in more than a year ago [in September 2013] my daughter still says `I can't believe we have our own home'."
Marc Roland, of Elevated Living, the builder who sold Hingston the house and land package, is the chairman of the Master Builder Association's residential building council.
He said the Hingstons were fortunate and there was more and more financial pressure on first home buyers to settle for a unit or a townhouse.
"Since Jon Stanhope ceased to be the chief minister, successive ACT governments have stopped focusing on providing free-standing accommodation for first home buyers," he said.
"Within the space of less than a third of a generation, Canberra first home buyers have been stripped of choice."
Canberra has experienced a unit revolution since 2000 when flats accounted for only 27.9 per cent of all properties sold in the ACT and went for, on average, 86 per cent of the price of a house.
In 2014, 39.7 per cent, an about 40 per cent increase, of all properties sold in the ACT were units. Relative values had dropped by about 10 per cent, with last year's unit prices averaging just 78 per cent of the price of a house.
"Today's young people would love a piece of grass but the only affordable housing option open to them are units and townhouses," Roland said.
"It is a form of social engineering; young couples are putting off having children because they want to wait until they can step up into a house with its own backyard."
The Land Development Agency, which has presided over much of the growth in unit numbers since its establishment by an act of the Territory Parliament in 2007, rejected the social engineering tag.
"No policies exist in which housing choice is restricted for young couples," David Dawes, the LDA's chief executive, said.
"Canberra's housing stock comprises 14 per cent units with the remainder being townhouses and free-standing homes."
While Roland believes Canberra first home buyers are being forced to settle for what they can afford rather than what they want, Dawes says his agency's emphasis on unit building is people-focused.
"The densification and urban renewal of Canberra is a response to the community's clear desire for more sustainable living choices," he said.
Hingston, for one, just isn't buying that.
"I have a child and am the product of a culture that says that when you buy a family home you have some space, somewhere to play. It is a part of who we are."