By Caitlin Powell

The Greens’ attempts to reach a compromise on bills aimed at easing the housing crisis are “unserious” and “unethical”, the housing minister says.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather wrote to minister Clare O’Neil on Friday and promised to pass stalled legislation on help-to-buy and build-to-rent schemes if three conditions were met.

“If they were serious about getting an outcome, they’d talk to us, not drop out proposals via the media,” Ms O’Neil said.

“My request is simply that the Greens act ethically.”

The letter demanded funding for the immediate construction of thousands of social and affordable homes and amendments to the help-to-buy legislation.

The Greens also want to remove the requirement for participants in the scheme to pay back the government’s share and to offer 40 per cent equity for homes that are newly built or off-the-plan and close to public transport.

Mr Chandler-Mather’s letter also called for the build-to-rent scheme to increase the minimum number of “genuinely” affordable tenancies in developments and cap rents.

The Property Council of Australia rejected the proposals and said the housing crisis was “too serious for the Greens’ flippant ideas”.

“Their build-to-rent counter proposal ignores commercial reality and will not build one new home,” chief executive Mike Zorbas said.

“The nation’s leading builders, the community housing sector and the independents have repeatedly told them this but this proposal ignores the experts.”

The Labor government is pushing several policies to ease pressure on the housing market including the help-to-buy and build-to-rent schemes but both proposals remain in limbo, with the coalition opposed and Labor locked in negotiations with the Greens.

The Greens have previously called for changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax and a rent freeze.

The measures, which did not feature in the latest compromise conditions, have been relegated to a list of reforms the Greens have vowed to “keep fighting for” at the next federal election and beyond.

Mr Chandler-Mather criticised the government for being “unwilling to shift”.

“We are deeply concerned that your government would rather let your housing bills fail than work with the Greens to negotiate a housing plan,” he said in the letter.

Ms O’Neill said the two proposals blocked by the Greens were “important pieces of the puzzle” in providing relief for Australians.

“Stop working with Peter Dutton to deny tens of thousands of Australians access to affordable homes,” she said.

“Come back to parliament and make good housing policies into good laws so we can help the people we were elected to serve.”