Property Council, ACT Shelter slam lack of affordable housing

ACT Property Council President, Travis Doherty and ACT Shelter chief executive Travis Gilbert. Picture: Matt Loxton

Developers and housing advocates have united to call on the next ACT government to make tackling housing affordability a top priority.

They have called for more to be done to increase the supply of affordable housing and for a revisit of "skyrocketing" rates, land taxes and charges on lease variations.

Property Council ACT president Travis Doherty and ACT Shelter chief executive Travis Gilbert made the call ahead of next month's election.

They said housing had become increasingly unaffordable over the past 20 years and the matter needed to be looked at urgently.

Mr Doherty said it was crucial for the next government to address housing choice and affordability.

He said a targeted land release program was needed and the government had not provided enough affordable and diverse housing types. The government was too preoccupied with revenue from land sales, Mr Doherty said.

"We are calling for the next government to go further than any government has before to achieve the housing affordability continuum," he said.

"The government's obsessions for maximising revenue from land sales is proving detrimental to affordability, quality and housing choice."

Mr Gilbert said there was a supply crisis. He said state and territory housing authorities had rationed allocations to the lowest income households with the highest needs.

More investment was needed for community housing providers and the government could provide land at a lower cost, he said.

"[Government] really needs to sit down with providers and figure out really what is a viable project and what the territory needs to contribute in order to make the dollars stack up for providers," Mr Gilbert said.

"Currently they sell them land at the lowest possible market price but if your tenant is paying a quarter of the market rent that is not going to work."

The ACT Greens and Canberra Liberals have both released their housing polices.

The Liberals have promised to build 1200 new affordable dwellings and to make a $100 million line of credit available to community housing providers and the Greens promised a $400 million package for 1000 affordable rentals.