Announcement of new lender for ACT Land Rent Scheme

090/11

The ACT Labor Government continues to increase the opportunity for Canberrans to achieve home ownership, today announcing bankmecu as another provider of finance through the ACT’s nation-leading Land Rent Scheme.

Since its commencement in 2008, the Land Rent Scheme has proven an attractive option for more than 1000 low-income Canberra families wishing to achieve the dream of affordable home ownership.

The ACT Labor Government understands the need for Canberrans to have secure housing, whether it is through renting a home or buying one, and I am pleased to welcome the addition of another lender to the scheme today – providing Canberrans with even greater choice of mortgage provider.

Mr Seselja and the Liberals on the other hand have tried again and again to force the Government into abandoning the Land Rent Scheme – describing the Labor initiative as "flawed from the start" and "bound to fail".

In the Assembly on 25 February 2009, in relation to the Land Rent Scheme, Mr Seselja said:

"It is a poor policy; it is a policy that was simply never going to work. We stand by our opposition to it...." (Legislative Assembly, 25 February 2009)

I call on Mr Seselja today to admit he was wrong and explain to the more than 1000 Canberra families who now have homes that they can afford, why he opposed the creation of the innovative Labor scheme. I also call on the Canberra Liberals to make a commitment to not scrap the ACT Land Rent Scheme if elected in 2012.

The Land Rent Scheme is just one of 84 initiatives to improve housing affordability for Canberrans in the ACT Labor Government’s Affordable Housing Action Plan. Other initiatives include:

• A requirement that at least 20 per cent of all new estates include affordable housing priced at no more than $337,000,
• an accelerated land release program – delivering over 13,000 sites over the past three financial years, and
• a boost to community housing, with the creation of a $70 million revolving loan to CHC Affordable Housing – to deliver 500 new affordable homes for sale, and 500 affordable rental homes by 2018.

For further information on the land rent scheme, please visit www.economicdevelopment.act.gov.au or to make a booking or for further information on the land rent information sessions, contact the CIT on 6207 3188 or by email to infoline@cit.edu.au.