Prime development sites in the heart of Phillip, Gungahlin and Belconnen will be put up for sale in the next 12 months, as the ACT government banks on an upswing in the housing market to boost its budget bottom line.
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The government has also started direct negotiations with the University of New South Wales for the sale of land on Parkes Way, where it intends to build a new campus with on-site student accommodation.
Land across Canberra earmarked for 15,600 dwellings will be released to the market in the next four years, according to the ACT government's 2019-20 budget papers.
A total of 488 affordable housing blocks, as well as 140 sites for social and community housing, are earmarked for release in 2019-20.
The majority of the greenfield sites due to hit the market in the early years of the program will come in Gungahlin, before attention turns to building up suburbs in the Molonglo Valley.
Next year's land release schedule includes a block on Melrose Drive in Phillip, which has been designated for 480 homes and 11,200 square metres of commercial space.
Land at the corner of Anthony Rolfe Avenue and Kate Crace Street in Gungahlin, earmarked for 154 dwellings, will also hit the market in the next financial year.
Developers will also be able to snap up a car park site on Chandler Street in Belconnen, where they will be able to build 550 homes and 6,700 square metres of commercial space.
MORE BUDGET NEWS
The budget papers show Canberra's slowing property market and delays in the sale of Macarthur House and two Northbourne flat sites have hurt the government's bottom line.
The Suburban Land Agency's dividend for 2018-19 is expected to be $104.9 million, about $40.2 million lower than expected.
A $104.5 million dividend is forecast for 2019-20. Chief Minister and Treasurer Andrew Barr said he was optimistic the housing market would rebound on the back of the Coalition's surprise election win, an interest rate cut and Canberra's continued strong population growth.
The government is in talks with the University of New South Wales on the sale of land off Parkes Way. The development site, which is currently a car park, extends from Coranderrk Street to Anzac Park West.
The university unveiled its plans to establish a new campus in Reid in August 2017.
The land is scheduled for release in 2020-21, according to the budget papers.
The site has been earmarked for a 32,000-square-metre mixed-use development, which would allow for a campus, student accommodation and retail space.
The Canberra Times understands the staging of the project, as well as the final sale price, hinges on ongoing talks surrounding the future of the Parkes Way roundabout at the block's western edge.
The land release schedule reaffirms the government's intention to redevelop land around City Hill with as many as 1050 units.
It also forecasts the sale of two large blocks of land in Watson, off the Federal Highway, in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
The territory's 2019-20 budget has allocated $600,000 for a scoping study for the East Lake urban renewal project, which will involve the redevelopment of land around the Kingston foreshore.
A further $400,000 has been budgeted to identify land development opportunities along the stage two light rail route from the city to Woden.
The ACT government also plans to call for expressions of interest for the next stage of the redevelopment of Stromlo Forest Park in 2019-20.
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Dan Jervis-Bardy
Dan covers federal politics from Parliament House, with a special focus on climate policy and the NDIS. He has previously reported on ACT politics and urban affairs since joining the Canberra Times in 2018.
Dan covers federal politics from Parliament House, with a special focus on climate policy and the NDIS. He has previously reported on ACT politics and urban affairs since joining the Canberra Times in 2018.
