The territory government has now bought back more than $670 million worth of former Mr Fluffy asbestos homes across the city, at an average of $716,139 a block, with 429 blocks still yet to be sold to new buyers.
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The latest figures on the work of the $1 billion asbestos response taskforce show it has bought 948 properties for $678.9 million, to December 31 last year, with a further $84.4 million spent demolishing 916 homes.
While some 510 blocks have so far been sold back on the market, at a total value of $379.6 million, there remain 119 blocks passed in that have since been put on the 'over the counter' market and a further 310 blocks yet to go to auction.
Of those sold, only 41 were sold back to the original owners under the 'first right of refusal' measures, for a total of $32.5 million, 510 went to public sales, for $344.8 million and five were sold to the government for $2.3 million, with an overall average sale price of $677,540.
There have also now been 916 properties demolished to date, with a further 32 properties owned by the territory to be demolished by early April, and 41 "complex properties" - which may share a wall or infrastructure with a neighbouring property - to be demolished over coming months.
Those demolitions are costing an average of $93,000 per job, not including disposal costs, an average between the early per demolition cost of about $110,000 and the $89,000 estimated in over 700 properties since.
Acting executive director of urban renewal, Bruce Fitzgerald, said while the program would continue to run until it's expected end date of July 2020, the "vast majority" of the demolition work should be completed by the end of April.
But he said the demolition program this year would focus on the "complex properties", only 12 of which have been demolished to date, jobs which would need to be assessed on an individual basis.
Despite being ahead on demolition targets, the taskforce had 35 homeowners who had agreed for a final settlement date of June 2020, indicating those houses will be completed when possible in the interim.
The program is also running in line with an estimated net cost of $307 million - as outlined in last year's budget, but down from the original $400 million expected net cost, partly due to more improve demolition procedures as well as greater than expected sales revenue.
Deputy opposition leader Nicole Lawder said she was concerned so few blocks of the 1023 involved in the asbestos buyback had been sold back to the original owners, and that "it could be that the government has priced Mr Fluffy homeowners out of the market".
But Mr Fitzgerald said the price of the blocks reflected the market conditions, and that many homeowners may have decided not to buy back their land because of emotional and other reasons.
Of all homeowners affected by the Mr Fluffy loose-fill asbestos, 35 have to date chosen a "future settlement date" of June 2020 and 29 chose not to participate.
