Canberra Liberals leader Alistair Coe has promised to release more land "than what we've seen under the ACT Labor government" in order to woo people to the capital.
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However he has refused to say how many blocks will hit the market and when.
Donning boxing gloves brandished with their election slogan, "lower taxes, better services" Mr Coe promised to deliver a "knockout blow" to Canberra's cost of living during a press conference at a fight gym on Sunday.
He has vowed to save the average Canberra household $1800 per year by slashing rates, car rego, childcare and extracurricular costs.
But his plan hinges on bringing "Canberra refugees" - people who've purportedly fled the city for surrounding NSW due to higher costs of living - back into the ACT, in order to grow the overall pool of ratepayers.
ACT Labor leader Andrew Barr said on Sunday Mr Coe would need another 100,000 ratepaying households in Canberra to make up for the lost taxes revenue and pay for his extra promises.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows in the five years to 2016, 19,010 people moved from the ACT to the capital region - Queanbeyan, Yass, Cooma, Goulburn and the South Coast - while 17,005 people moved from the capital region to the ACT - a net loss to Canberra of 2005 people.
However it is unclear if these people would return, even if Canberra's cost of living reduced.
Labor points out in the five years to 2019. Queanbeyan's population grew by 8.1 per cent while Canberra's population rose by 9.6 per cent.
Mr Coe appeared to suggest the Liberals would focus on stopping residents from moving over the border in future.
"We will stem the tide of people that are moving over the border to NSW because we will have affordable options here in Canberra," he said.
However he later backtracked, saying, "The Canberra Liberals are going to fight to win these families back".
Central to their strategy to drive down cost of living would be to release more land across the city for housing.
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However Mr Coe again refused to say where the land would be or how many blocks they would expect to release.
"The Canberra Liberals will be releasing more affordable land than what we've seen under the ACT Labor government," Mr Coe said.
Mr Barr accused Mr Coe of making "Trump-like statements".
"We've been growing faster than the rest of the region both in terms of population growth, business growth [and] economic activity so to suggest there's this mass exodus over the border to NSW is just not true," Mr Barr said.
"The whole edifice for this election campaign is based on this inherent contradiction and people are smart, they see through it."
