See also Commuters find border protectionCanberra has become a city for the super wealthy, with entry-level homes beyond the means of average income earners, demographer Bernard Salt says.
Spiralling real estate prices had created a ''Manhattan effect'' in the national capital for an elite society of diplomats and professionals while ousting teachers, nurses and street sweepers, he said.
Chief Minister Jon Stanhope rejected the claim, saying Canberra was Australia's most affordable city.
Mr Salt said Manhattan home prices were so high teachers and nurses commuted from New Jersey to work in the up-market metropolis. In a similar outcome, Canberra's high prices would force average income earners to commute from Goulburn and Yass.
ACT business leaders said the Manhattan effect was adding to the skills crisis, with low wage earners priced out of the housing market.
Canberra's median home price has outstripped Melbourne's for years and is closing in on Sydney's median price of $606,804, only $87,500 above the territory's.
Australian Nursing Federation ACT branch secretary Jenny Miragaya said housing affordability made it hard to attract and keep nurses in Canberra.
Australian Education Union ACT branch spokeswoman Penny Gilmour said young teachers were put under stress when they realised the impact of Canberra's high-priced housing.
Coming from Sydney in 2001, Ms Gilmour said she was shocked by the prices, which would hit young teachers harder in 2011 when a wage agreement ended, placing ACT teachers behind NSW colleagues.
Mr Salt, a leading adviser to corporate Australia, said Canberra had created a Manhattan effect by placing a $150,000 premium on an entry-level, three-bedroom home.
He compared that type of dwelling on a 500sqm block at Forde in Gungahlin, priced at $450,000, with an equivalent home in Blacktown, Sydney, going for $400,000 and one in outer Werribee, Melbourne, for $280,000.
He said this was not a scientific analysis he would like to test the veracity of his proposition but suspected low income earners were being forced to travel from outside the city to work. ''I am sorry to be direct about it, but I think there is an issue here.''
Mr Stanhope said the ACT's affordability, when based on household incomes was the best in the country.
He said land release, a key to affordability, would be stepped up with stages in Bonner brought forward, along with the new Molonglo suburbs of Wright and Coombs and earlier releases of more suburbs in Gungahlin.
Mr Salt said as a society Canberra was measured not by how well it provided for the super wealthy, but by how well it provided for the average and below-average income earners.
''When you think about that, what you are saying in Canberra is, 'We don't want below average income earners to come into Canberra'.''
Mr Salt said, ''We're not providing housing for them. If you are an average, or God forbid, a below-average income earner, then we have no product for you.''Housing Industry Association southern NSW and ACT executive director Stuart Collins said the Government had made massive inroads into affordability and found Mr Salt's comments a little remarkable.
Canberra's stable employment, highest average wages in Australia and scarcity of land before 2006 had raised median home prices. Mr Collins said the Government's biggest challenge was getting serviced blocks out faster so builders could put down a slab and begin construction.
ACT Chamber of Commerce chief executive Chris Peters said, ''The cost of housing in Canberra is still incredibly expensive and there's not enough of it at any price.'' He said what was deemed affordable was irrelevant to unskilled workers such as cleaners and security guards.
Unchallenged when presenting his figures at Canberra Business Council's annual awards, Mr Salt said someone in the audience shouted, ''It's shameful.''
The business council's chief executive Chris Faulks said high house prices made it difficult to attract people to Canberra at a time of a worsening skills shortage.
Mr Salt said Canberra needed police, nurses, teachers, firemen and street sweepers as well as the high-income earners.
''Surely a society is embellished by a range of activities and skills. Not everyone has to be a diplomat.''
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