Master Builders ACT chief executive Michael Hopkins said land seemed to be at a particularly severe shortage in the territory.

"A builder concentrating on single housing will be trying to manage resources, labour, cash flow at the moment things like building materials and trying to have some forward plan of what they expect to be building over the next few months and years," Mr Hopkins told a Legislative Assembly inquiry.

"And because there's no confidence or certainty about access to land, it makes it very hard to plan."

The ACT government should commission an external review into its land-release program, the association said in its submission to the inquiry.

"This review should identify ways the ACT government can add value to the land release program (such as concentrating on release of public and affordable housing, or demonstration housing), and areas where the private sector can add value to the land release program (such as greater involvement in land development, release and sales)," the submission said.

The submission also said the government had failed to provide an adequate supply of residential land, which had had a significant impact on the community.

"[It has] led to a failure to achieve other priorities of government, including supply of public and affordable housing, building quality, and supporting local industry," the submission said.

But the ACT government defended its land-release program to the parliamentary committee, which is inquiring into a 2020 Auditor-General's assessment of the program.

Planning Minister Mick Gentleman said the government was meeting its objectives under a 2018 planning strategy, which commits to 70 per cent of land coming from within the urban footprint and 30 per cent greenfield development.

"If we were to continue the previous planning strategy, that would been an expansion of the expanse of the footprint of the city, which would be incredibly expensive for those future Canberrans," Mr Gentleman said.

The ACT's chief planner, Ben Ponton, said internal modelling relied on census data, dwelling approvals and other statistics to calculate the demand for housing.

Liberal committee member Peter Cain questioned Mr Gentleman and Mr Ponton whether they believed the ACT government was meeting the demand for detached housing blocks.

Mr Ponton said he was comfortable the government was meeting that demand based on its modelling.

"Governments are elected to make policy for the greater good of the community, and whilst I appreciate what you're saying in terms of you're hearing clearly some things in relation to parts of the community looking for green fields development but in terms of broader planning, we need to consider a whole range of other consideration," he said in response to Mr Cain.

MORE A.C.T. POLITICS NEWS:

The Canberra Liberals have sought to draw attention to demand for detached housing and have repeatedly argued for more greenfield land to be released to the market.

Around 12,300 buyers registered their interest for the first 71 blocks of land in Macnamara, Canberra's newest suburb, earlier this year.

Suburban Land Agency chief executive John Dietz in October 2021 told an ACT budget estimates hearing the agency had continued to supply land faster than population growth in Canberra demanded it.

Mr Dietz said at the time Canberra's population had grown by about 1000 people in the last year, which meant an extra 400 families would need somewhere to live; in that period, the Suburban Land Agency had delivered enough land for 3000 houses.

Land supply has become a federal election issue in the territory, with Liberal senator Zed Seselja on Wednesday promising the Commonwealth would move to sell CSIRO land between Belconnen and Ginninderra for housing if the Coalition was re-elected on May 21.

The ACT government has expressed interest in buying the site for housing, but Senator Seselja ruled out selling the land to the territory and did not commit to an open tender process.

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