Ikea takes lion's share of industrial land released in Canberra

The Ikea block is 69,100 square metres, and accounts for two-thirds of the industrial land released in the 2014-15 year. The rest was in Hume, where four blocks totalling 37,000 square metres were released to the market.

The release of industrial land fell short of the Land Development Agency's 124,000 square metre target for the past year, but the agency met its residential targets for the first time in four years.

The agency has been criticised for failing to release sufficient land, pushing prices up by squeezing supply, and for failing to meet its own land-release targets.

For the past three years, it has fallen short, totalling 5200 fewer residential sites than planned over three years. But in the 2014-15 year, the agency settled on a more modest target of 3600 and exceeded it, delivering 3669 dwellings.

The increase was driven by public housing, accelerated as part of the government's plans to demolish large public housing blocks in Northbourne Avenue with 382 public housing sites released, most of them in the new Gungahlin suburb of Moncrieff and the almost-complete Coombs, in Weston.

In Coombs, 144 new dwellings were dedicated to public housing; in Moncrieff 145.

The other public housing releases are in Amaroo (32) and Nicholls (14) in Gungahlin; and Monash (25) and Chisholm (22) in Tuggeranong.

Of the 3669 residential sites released in the past 12 months, almost all were for multi-unit development Just 342, or 9 per cent, were single residential blocks, including 12 public housing blocks. Fifty-four of the public house sites were for terrace-style dwellings.

Agency deputy chief executive Ben Ponton said while sites in Moncrieff, Greenway, Lawson and Coombs had been released as medium-density sites, he expecteddemand will see many of them brought to market as townhouses rather than apartments.

Since July, more than 1000 single residential sites had been released in the new area of Denman Prospect and it planned another 78 in Moncrieff plus 300 in Throsby early next year.

The biggest residential release in 2014-15 was a multi-unit site in the Belconnen town centre for 745 dwellings, a sale that brought in $22.1 million, according to the annual report

In the new Belconnen suburb of Lawson, 438 dwelling sites were sold, and in Moncrieff 525, excluding the public housing.

Another 380 dwellings were released in Coombs in three multi-unit developments, not counting the public housing sites, and 348 were released in Greenway, Tuggeranong.

The agency said a mixed-use site in Harrison had been brought forward because of demand in the tram corridor. The development would include 155 dwellings.

Stage 1 of Lawson and Flemington Road sales were now complete, the agency said.

But the plan to release 400 sites in Taylor, another new Gungahlin suburb, had been delayed while the agency considered "alternative sales packaging".

The agency made $353.5 million from land sales, up almost 50 per cent on the 2013-14 year, when it made $235.9 million. The land cost $187.2 million to develop, suggesting a profit on the sales of $166.3 million.

Agency chairman Ross Barrett said sales had been strong in the 12 months, with a 100 per cent clearance rate for land released to the market. The strength of multi-unit sales across the city was also evidence of confidence in the local market.

"The announcement made by the chief minister in February 2015 to establish a new urban renewal portfolio reflects the important role that infill development will play as Canberra continues to grow," he said. "This is particularly relevant given the diminishing availability of greenfield land within the ACT's borders and the need for sustainable development."