Property Council ACT & Capital Region Executive Director Ashlee Berry said the industry supported the goal of increasing affordable and social housing but warned against imposing new requirements on individual projects before the planning framework had even been finalised.
“We all want to see more affordable and social housing delivered across Canberra, but those outcomes need to be achieved through proper planning processes, not by politicians dictating outcomes on individual sites before a rezoning has even been assessed,” she said.
“The Thoroughbred Park precinct represents one of Canberra’s best opportunities to deliver new housing supply – up to 6,200 homes. The priority should be creating the conditions for more homes to be built, not adding new costs and obligations that could make projects harder to deliver.”
Ms Berry said housing developments cannot absorb an ever-growing list of policy requirements without consequence.
“The reality is that every additional mandate increases costs, reduces project feasibility and ultimately risks reducing the number of homes that get built,” she said.
“You wouldn’t take 10 or 15 per cent of a farmer’s field without fair compensation and expect the farm to remain viable. Yet increasingly we’re expecting housing providers to shoulder more and more public policy costs without recognising the impact on housing supply.
“The more costs we load onto housing projects, the fewer projects stack up financially. When developments don’t proceed, Canberra loses market housing, affordable housing and social housing outcomes alike.”
Ms Berry said the Property Council supported increasing affordable housing supply, but it should be funded through sustainable and transparent mechanisms.
“Affordable housing is an important public policy objective, but it must be delivered in a way that doesn’t undermine the viability of the very projects needed to expand housing supply.
“If governments want more affordable and social housing, there are better ways to achieve that outcome, including direct investment, discounted government land and partnerships with the community housing sector.
“Canberra can’t solve a housing shortage by continually adding new costs and obligations to housing projects. If we want more homes, including affordable housing, we need policies that support housing supply, not ones that make housing harder to deliver.”
