Those experts have painted a picture of a city riddled with building defects, from minor to substantial, that will become increasingly evident as they begin to age.

With estimates that as much as 80 per cent of new apartment buildings having some sort of defect, claims of a sector in crisis seem justified. How did a well-educated, planned city with high incomes and high property prices find itself in this position?

It's no secret that the ACT's growth has been rapid, and with it a scramble to find homes for the thousands of new residents looking for a place to call home.  That's set to continue, with 40,000 dwellings needing to be constructed in the next decade as the population approaches 500,000.

But that rush seems to have brought with it a degradation in quality that has seen residents across the city left devastated and out of pocket as they fight to have their homes repaired.

According to the ACT Government's own discussion paper into building quality issues, the cost of rectifying building defects in the ACT could be as high as $114 million in 2016-17, based on University of NSW estimates.

Regulation, often labelled "red tape" has in the past been seen as a drag on industry struggling to meet demand. But the light touch and self regulation of many aspects of the construction industry has not served us well. Reducing the cost of repairs increases the efficiency of building, allowing for example better suited but more expensive materials to be used that will not require repair at a later date.

To be sure, the causes of the problems are complex and cannot be sheeted home to just ineffective regulation or certification. To its credit the ACT Government has acknowledged it has a problem and has taken some tentative steps to improve the situation, including establishing a dedicated unit to monitor and respond to building complaints.

Only time, and the quality of newly constructed buildings, will tell if those changes have gone far enough, although the number of complaints has started to drop.

Home buyers are not building experts, neither should they be expected to be. Of course anyone making a significant investment like buying a unit needs to do their due diligence, but they also have a right to expect that properties that have passed government-mandated checks will not become a nightmare for them in coming years.

As the Assembly committee prepares to start hearings into building defects in the coming months there will be more stories of shoddy work and shattered dreams. If the government does not want to consign another generation of homeowners to the disappointment, legal battles and heartache of those who have gone before them, it needs to be willing to make sweeping, bold changes that focus firmly on ensuring quality no longer falls victim to expediency.

There are several levers at the government's disposal to achieve that aim. Strengthening regulations and bringing many self-policed compliances back into the government fold might be a good place to start.