The ACT government has shied away from declaring a housing crisis in the territory, instead pointing to a global crisis in affordability that has also affected Canberra and committing to lobby the federal government on the issue.
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Housing Minister Yvette Berry watered down a motion moved in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday by the opposition spokesman on housing, Mark Parton, which had originally called on the ACT government conduct an independent review of local government policies and the impact on house prices.
The Assembly instead agreed to continue lobbying the Commonwealth government on housing affordability measures and develop a national housing and homelessness strategy.
Ms Berry said the challenge every government faced in Australia to manage growing house prices was complex.
"To suggest that it is just a matter of government supply of land, as a primary cause of house price increases, ignores everything that has occurred over the last 18 months," Ms Berry said.
"Any suggestion that there is a simple answer to this issue is quite simply lazy, opportunistic and wrong."
Ms Berry pointed to record-low interest rates on bank loans and Commonwealth government tax incentives as the driving forces behind surging property prices in the ACT.
Peter Cain, a Liberal member for Ginninderra, opposed the amendment and said the ACT government controlled the supply of residential land, so could increase supply to lower prices for detached houses.
"The government does decide how many new and detached houses can be built and how much land is released for that purpose, and it should not be using the cover-all term of dwellings released. It should give accurate figures of the detached numbers and the unit numbers," Mr Cain said.
"It's a cover up, and again is ignoring the fact we have a growing disparity of the median price of detached land and of units. It's taking housing choice away from the Canberra community.
But the Greens member for Brindabella, Johnathan Davis, said there was not enough land to provide endless detached housing in Canberra, and it was not a solution to the affordability issue. The former real estate agent said there needed to be changes to federal government incentives for property investors.
"The infinite land supply that the Canberra Liberals seem to want to promise ... begs the obvious question: If you are going to pretend that the solution for the housing affordability crisis is this infinite supply of land in a finite territory, you owe it to the Canberra community to be honest with them about what forest you're bulldozing. What beautiful natural greenspace are you doing away with?" Mr Davis said.
Planning Minister Mick Gentleman said the ACT government was moving the levers it had to control house prices, including ensuring a range of housing types. Mr Gentleman said the Canberra Liberals' focus on detached housing was a slap in the face to Canberrans who chose to live in other types of housing.
"An important lever to increase housing affordability is to have a range of different housing types and a range of different price points. Single dwellings, units, townhouses are all part of a range of options we're delivering, and they all have a place in Canberra's future," he said.
Mr Parton described Ms Berry's amendment to his motion as a "knock down rebuild".
"So much of Labor's focus in this space has been about trying to get us pesky Liberals to lobby our party to change policy. Mr Gentleman, who is a member of a party that has exactly the same policy, he hasn't done any of that with his side, and I mean, that either says this form of lobbying is a waste of time or that Mr Gentleman doesn't think [federal Labor leader Anthony] Albanese is a snow ball's chance in hell of becoming prime minister," he said.
Mr Parton on Monday said Canberra was "in the grip of a housing crisis of the Labor-Greens government's own making".
MORE A.C.T. POLITICS NEWS:
Canberra has the second most expensive property prices in the country, data from CoreLogic showed last week. CoreLogic data also shows Canberra remains the most expensive city in Australia to rent, with the median price currently $633 a week, up 9.6 per cent from the same time last year and far above the national median of $485 a week.
The median value for dwellings, which includes houses and units, is now $864,909, making Canberra the second-most expensive capital city after Sydney, where the median price is $1,071,709.
In the year to October 31, prices grew 25.52 per cent, higher than any other capital city other than Hobart, which clocked a 28.06 per cent rise during the same period.
House values grew at a far greater rate than units in the past 12 months, gaining 29 per cent compared to 13 per cent.
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