“The longer the government delays the sale of the land and exacerbates pent up demand, the greater the return. Or is that being too cynical?” writes political columnist JON STANHOPE.

ONE of the more confusing policies adopted by the ACT government is surely that related to land supply. 

The recent hoo-ha about the urgency of extending the ACT border into NSW is a prime example of that confusion. 

The message being conveyed by Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Greens Leader Shane Rattenbury is quite explicit, namely: “We are just about out of developable land with few options available to us other than to abandon the construction of detached housing and concentrate on infill and high rise and to expand into NSW by moving the border.” 

One has only to visit Jerrabomberra, Googong, Bungendore, Murrumbateman, Collector and Yass etcetera to appreciat

e the rate at which Canberrans, who have been priced out of the housing market, are opting to live in NSW. 

Relevantly, I also understand that there may be as many as 1000 people a day commuting on a daily basis from Goulburn to Canberra, for work. 

Thank goodness the greenhouse emissions generated by the thousands of additional kilometres being driven by these thousands of expatriate Canberrans are all attributed to NSW and not to us. 

But I digress. My confusion about land supply policy has recently been compounded by two reports I have waded through. 

The first of these was an ACT Auditor-General’s report titled “Assembly of Rural Land West of Canberra”. The auditor-general reports, among other things, that between June 2014 and June 2017, the Land Development Agency, with the active support of Cabinet and pertinently the Treasurer, Andrew Barr, purchased nine rural properties located to the west of Canberra, which had a combined area of 3378 hectares. 

To provide some perspective, the auditor noted that these nine properties when considered with other territory owned land that surrounds Stromlo Forest Park are similar in size to the whole of the districts of Woden Valley (2860 hectares) and Weston Creek (1580 hectares). The combined population of these two districts is 63,700. 

We the people of Canberra paid a total of $34.6 million for these nine properties. The justification for their purchase and the expenditure of those monies was that they were required for housing and/or to facilitate residential development. Let me be clear, I fully support their purchase and congratulate the LDA for having done so. 

Notably other land purchases, for example the purchase in 2013 of the 227 hectare Glenloch property, for $10 million, again for housing, are not only not included in the audit report but, despite the passing of a decade since their purchase nothing, as is the case with the nine properties reported on by the auditor-general, has been done to ready them for sale to Canberrans desperate to own their own home. 

The other report is the portfolio brief prepared by the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate (EPSDD) for the incoming Minister for Urban Renewal, following the last election. 

It’s a ripper of a report and contains the following gems: 

“The Planning and Land Management portfolio will continue projects to implement your priorities to:

• Dedicate at least 15 per cent of residential land releases to affordable, community and public housing; 
• Maintain a strong supply of new homes.” (joke, Joyce) 

“Molonglo Valley is the newest greenfield development front and at capacity, is planned to accommodate approximately 55,000 new residents. Progressing the concept planning for Molonglo is critical to provide for development of new suburbs.” 

“Other greenfield development is the Gungahlin suburb of Kenny.” 

“Forward strategic planning and the opportunity for new development fronts require long-term diligence and forward planning to set in place the framework for the future development of Canberra. When Gungahlin and Molonglo Valley are developed, EPSDD will continue to develop ACT’s next urban development front which is the western edge – almost 10,000 hectares of land bordered by the Murrumbidgee River and the existing areas of Weston Creek, Molonglo Valley and Belconnen.” 

In light of the information contained in these reports I am at a loss to understand the basis of the repeated claims from within the ACT government that we have run out of urban-capable land. 

One can also, of course, only hazard a guess as to the reasons that the government has not sought to prepare any of the land, the subject of the audit report, or other land it owns, for sale. To be blunt the land has been banked. 

As I note above the auditor-general concluded that the land area covered by the nine blocks purchased six to 10 years ago is similar to that of Woden Valley and Weston Creek together, the combined population of which is more than 63,000 people living, in the main, in detached houses. 

On the basis of this one can assume that these nine rural blocks, if sold for detached housing, would provide a yield of a minimum of 30,000 dwellings. If one then further assumes that each of the 30,000 blocks sells for, lets say, only $250,000 then the return to the government will be $7.5 billion. That is, of course, before accounting for infrastructure costs. 

The longer, of course, that the government delays the sale of the land and exacerbates pent up demand, the greater the return. Or is that being too cynical?