The ACT government is to spend more than a million dollars revamping the way planning applications are dealt with.
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It said the system needed to be reviewed because "Canberra's population is growing by approximately 7000 per year as more people choose to live here.
"With this growth, 100,000 new homes will need to be built in the next 25 years, with 70 per cent in existing urban areas."
There's been a welter of criticism of building standards over the past few years, particularly of the way builders are allowed to hire private companies to certify their work.
The frequent allegation is that this means the private regulator has an interest in approving the work of the company which has hired him or her.
House buyers and developers have complained that getting approval for building can take too much time and paperwork.
On the other hand, some groups have complained that the city's growth has been not regulated enough, with apartment blocks marring Canberra's "garden city" character.
The ACT government says about its review: "Throughout 2020, community members will be invited to identify the special characteristics of their local area. This will help us to develop more detailed planning at a local level."
The government's aim is to have a system which is both flexible but also offers certainty - in other words, one that responds to the particular needs of a developer but also has rules which are uniform.
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It is not clear how it will achieve that with the $1.2 million it has allocated to changing the system.
"We want a planning system that is flexible, easy to use, protects what we value and encourages innovation," a statement said.
The aim was to "deliver a compact, efficient, diverse, sustainable, liveable and accessible city".
The review will examine what changes would need to be made to two acts: the Territory Plan which sets out zoning for residential, industrial and other types of use, and the ACT Planning and Development Act which sets out the rules for applying for permission to build.