'Poor take-up' of ACT government's affordable housing blocks: audit

Less than 20 per cent of the affordable housing dwellings released by the Suburban Land Agency were purchased, according to the report by ACT auditor-general Michael Harris.

This is despite 455 registrations to the ACT government's affordable home purchase register.

It attributed the lack of interest in the affordable housing blocks to the fact most of the released blocks were one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. The report said the majority of purchasers were after three-bedroom dwellings.

The report said of the 86 affordable dwellings offered to the market, as of March 2020, more than half were two bedroom units and almost 30 per cent were one-bedroom units.

This was despite almost 70 per cent of the potential purchasers after a three-bedroom dwelling.

"The supply of affordable housing dwellings through the affordable home purchase program has not met the market's preferences," the report said.

"This indicates that there has been a mismatch between the preferences of potential purchasers and the dwellings that have been supplied to the market."

The government's affordable home purchase program allows eligible buyers in the territory to buy blocks at a below-market rate.

There are income thresholds, which start at an annual income $100,000 for households for up to two children and this increases to $148,000 for households with five or more children.

The report made seven recommendations for improvement. These included transparency around land releases and around the management of the affordable home purchase program.

The report has said the planning directorate, Suburban Land Agency and City Renewal authority needed to amend the nature and type of affordable dwellings and said a review should be undertaken.

"Plan for an for an evaluation of the affordable home purchase program to review the effectiveness of the program in meeting affordable housing policies and objectives of the territory," the report said.

The audit also called for more transparency around the release of land.

As part of the government's land release program, at least 15 per cent of dwellings released should be affordable, community and public housing blocks but the report said targets were not met in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

In the three years to 2018-19, the Suburban Land Agency released land for up to 12,420 but the report noted while land had been offered to the market it may not have necessarily sold.

It said the planning directorate needed to be more transparent on land supply to the ACT market by identifying the nature of dwellings expected to be yielded.

More recently, the agency has exceeded demand with land targets releases beaten this financial year but expectations for land sales would remain subdued and this was further impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.