Opposition Leader Alistair Coe slams government's release of multi-unit dwellings

Less than one in five dwellings released over the 2018-19 and 2017-18 financial years were single residential blocks.

Opposition Leader Alistair Coe said families were being forced over the border and they wanted to have greater choice in the housing market in the territory.

It came after a response to question on notice from Mr Coe showed in the 2017-18 only 10 per cent of blocks released were single residential, in the next financial year it was 28 per cent.

Over the two years, the government released 7513 blocks and of those only 1345 were single residential.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr hit back at the Opposition Leader and said there were almost 500 blocks available for sale at the moment but the government would continue with its strategy for urban infill.

"There is a supply of single residential land at the moment but there will of course continue to be releases for infill development," he said.

"The extent to which one or the other is taken up is largely the decision of individuals and the market."

Mr Coe said the single residential blocks that were available were too small and expensive.

"It shouldn't be the few blocks that are available are over $1000 per square metre. A block of 315 square metres costing $400,000 before you have built a house is absolutely outrageous," Mr Coe said.

"We want to make sure there are affordable options to build a house in the ACT."

Mr Barr said Labor wanted to strike a balance between urban infill and new greenfield estate but the ACT could not continue to spread out.

"Canberra can't spread out in urban sprawl forever, we have reached the edge of the territory's borders," he said.

"We of course have to take into account the damage we can do to our surrounding bush environment."

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But Mr Coe said the opposition had no concerns about running out of land and the Chief Minister had used this to push an agenda for more apartments.

"Andrew Barr has been spinning these lines for a long time simply to push his vision for the city which is all about apartments," he said.

"On the one hand you have the government buying blocks of land, buying paddocks for suburban development.

"Yet saying we don't have any land in the ACT, the reality is there are plenty of opportunities for land release in the ACT but under Andrew Barr and ACT Labor they simply don't want to."

Mr Coe said the Liberals would commit to releasing more land. He did not say where the Liberals would release land but indicated west of Weston Creek and west Belconnen would be options.

It came as last week an audit report found there had been a poor take-up of the government's affordable housing blocks with less than 20 per cent sold.

The report said this was because most of the released blocks were for one and two-bedroom units while the majority of purchasers were after three-bedroom dwellings.