ACT election 2020: Canberra Liberals to lean on community housing providers to tackle affordability crisis

Opposition Leader Alistair Coe on Friday announced that a Liberal government would make a $100 million line of credit available to community housing providers to build the new homes in its first four-year term.

The Liberals have also pledged to cap the price of government house and land packages for low-income earners and expand the ACT's shared equity scheme, which allows public housing tenants to purchase a stake in their property.

Housing advocates, who joined Mr Coe and Liberal housing spokesman Mark Parton for the announcement, welcomed the proposal, but said there was more to be done to make up an estimated shortfall of 3000 social housing dwellings in the nation's capital.

The ACT Greens, meanwhile, have questioned the Liberals' costings, estimating that about $400 million would need to be offered to achieve the 1200-home target.

In what is their most significant commitment yet on tackling housing affordability, the Liberals plan to lean on the community housing sector to help deliver more options for low-income earners.

The Liberals' plan represents a point of difference from Labor, which has been focused in recent years on renewing and growing the territory's public housing portfolio.

Mr Parton said the Liberals would follow through with Labor's plan to build 260 new public housing units, while also renewing 1000 existing properties.

But he said community housing providers had to play a bigger role in addressing Canberra's housing and rental crisis.

"We have arrived at the position that community housing providers have been underutilised," Mr Parton said. "It's time to draw a line in the sand and allow them to step up and fulfill their potential."

"They [community housing providers] deliver so much more bang for buck, they are so cost-efficient but they are also delivering great service to their tenants."

Funds from the $100 million line of credit would offered to community housing providers interest free, Mr Coe confirmed.

Havelock Housing Association chief executive Andrew Rowe said he supported any policy which would address what he described as the "dire state" of housing affordability in Canberra.

"The current government has committed 260 [new dwellings] and we are grateful for that - that is a move in the right direction," he said.

"If this brings 1200 or more then that is even further. But we need to go even further than that."

Mr Rowe said the community sector was ready to do more of the "heavy lifting", but needed the government to help it by providing more land at affordable prices.

Asked if the Liberals' plan was the best way to support providers to build more homes, Mr Rowe said: "it's one of the mechanisms that would help". He said the Commonwealth's bond scheme was the first port of call for finance, with the Liberals' proposed line of credit likely to provide a secondary option.

ACT Shelter chief executive Travis Gilbert welcomed the Liberals' plan to provide more affordable housing in Canberra.

"We have the most expensive detached-housing rental market in Australia, even outstripping inner-ring Sydney now," he said.

"That means that someone who moves here to take up a graduate job is spending nearly half their take-home pay paying rent. If we want to lure people here, we need to make sure they can meet the cost of living."

Greens housing spokeswoman Rebecca Vassarotti was pleased with the Liberals' focus on housing affordability.

But she doubted that a $100 million fund would be nearly enough to achieve the 1200-home target. The Greens' housing package has allocated double the amount ($200 million) to help deliver half number of community housing rentals (600) promised by the Liberals.

Labor housing minister Yvette Berry said the ACT government had already started work on policies included in the Liberals' plan, including a review of the shared equity scheme.

In a statement which ignored the Liberals' pledge to build 1200 new dwellings, Ms Berry talked up Labor's nation-leading investment in public housing.

"Under Labor, the government has maintained the highest ratio of public housing dwellings to population at 25 dwellings per 1000 people- more than twice the national average. When community housing is included, we are second only to the Northern Territory with 27 dwellings per 1000 people," Ms Berry said.

"The Canberra Liberal's appear to have announced that they will do little more on public housing than continue Labor's existing efforts."