More dual occupancies could be allowed in low density areas, Ben Ponton and Mick Gentleman say

The government is also hopeful the new planning system, along with market changes, will encourage people to build smaller houses.

More people were open to dual occupancies in areas zoned for single detached homes, especially from prospective downsizers, the ACT's Chief Planner Ben Ponton said feedback had shown.

But he said officials were exploring possible planning controls, or "safeguards", to implement around dual occupancies.

"It wouldn't just be a house in the backyard, I think that wouldn't be well received," Mr Ponton said.

"[But] what we're hearing through community engagement is that people are certainly open to this but it needs to be done well [and] it needs to be designed well so let's explore with the community what those safeguards might be."

This is in stark contrast to the early 2000s when there was anger at the number of dual occupancies being built in Canberra.

Twenty years ago the ACT government introduced tight planning controls to curb the number of dual occupancies. The Garden City Variation was implemented after concerns were raised about dual occupancies, which at that point were not governed by any planning rules.

"The Garden City Variation came out to control the number of dual occupancies because there was no regime around they were just popping up," Planning Minister Mick Gentleman said.

RZ1 blocks are low density and only one dwelling is permitted unless the block is more than 800 square metres. On these larger blocks, a dual occupancy is allowed but it cannot be separately titled, meaning the houses cannot be sold individually.

However, the government slightly relaxed rules with former Mr Fluffy blocks allowing dual occupancies to be built on blocks above 700 square metres.

"We had feedback then from the community who live in these areas saying, 'Why can't I do that now?'," Mr Gentleman said.

"The conversation actually came from older people saying, 'I still want to live in the area that I have but I might want to build something else on my block, maybe my kids might move in and I'll stay in my house'."

There have been calls from several housing and building groups calling for the government to implement zoning changes to make way for more housing in the city and to make housing more affordable in inner areas.

Earlier this week, Master Builders ACT called on the government to make changes to planning laws to allow more opportunities for dual occupancies and multi-unit developments.

When the district plans were released late last year, housing advocacy group Greater Canberra aired concerns that proposed changes to zoning did not go far enough, saying it did not meet the demand for more Canberra homes.

The government has said the proposed changes to RZ1 zones will be informed by feedback from the community.

Mr Ponton said officials would identify areas that could accommodate growth but would also create rules around dual occupancies for specific areas.

"In relation to what we're proposing here it's not a case of every single RZ1 block would be able to accommodate a dual occupancy so that's why we've identified those future investigation areas so we can start to do the fine-grain analysis to work out what the parameters might be," he said.

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"If you look at the district strategies we're looking at population growth, what areas we think will experience more growth over others and what are the levers that we might want to use to encourage growth in areas that can accommodate growth and take the pressure off those areas that are perhaps growing a little bit too fast.

"So RZ1 developments [with] dual occupancies done well can accommodate some growth, it may not provide thousands and thousands of new homes but it will provide a particular choice and provide a certain number of homes."

The Legislative Assembly is currently considering a new planning bill, which would replace the current strict rules-based system with one focused on outcomes.

Concurrently, the government is consulting about changes to the territory plan and planning rules for different districts.

Many of the changes are aimed at furthering the government's urban infill ambition of having 70 per cent of new properties built in already existing areas.

The government has said part of the reason this target is in place is due to limits on the amount of potential future greenfield land in the territory.

This is why planning changes may also be set up to encourage Canberra to build smaller houses.

The biggest houses in the country are built in Canberra, with previous reports saying the average size of a new house in the territory was more than 250 square metres.

Mr Gentleman said Canberra's big houses was a relatively new trend, pointing to the fact many older houses in inner suburbs were smaller.

"We can assist as much as we can in the planning system to allow people to build smaller houses... the market is going to drive that a bit but it's quite expensive, it's expensive to build a big home and expensive to run it," he said.

Consultation on the government's draft district planning strategies remains open for public comment until March 3.

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