Liberals to call for action into ACT's 'spiralling rental costs'

Shadow housing minister Mark Parton will put forward a motion to the Legislative Assembly next week that will press the government into investigating solutions into Canberra's rental crisis.

This will include a call to investigate a shared-ownership model with community housing providers, to extend already leased community housing properties and to consider greater land tax exemptions and rates rebates for landlords who lease through a community housing provider.

As well, the motion would propose an investigation into the overhaul of Canberra's land tax scheme. It will ask the government to look at the NSW-style scheme where tax is only paid on the value of a land more than a certain value.

Mr Parton said the motion was in response to recent data that showed Canberra had become the most expensive place to rent both a house and unit in the nation.

"Canberra has become the country's most expensive rental market under Labor and the Greens and the reality is that many families are seriously struggling with massive price hikes," he said.

The Liberals have long wanted community housing providers to play a greater role in addressing Canberra's housing crisis and pledged a $100 million line of credit to providers at last year's election.

"The Labor-Greens government needs to acknowledge the crisis it's created and embrace new policy ideas, especially with regards to how CHPs can be part of the affordable housing solution for struggling renting families," Mr Parton said.

"The Canberra Liberals are putting these ideas forward in good faith and I now challenge the Labor-Greens government to take them on board and consider them as part of their policy mix going forward in 2021."

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The Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement has committed to building 600 affordable housing properties during the four-year term but the agreement has not specified whether these would be managed by the government or community housing providers.

Community housing providers have made numerous pleas to the territory government for more land.

Havelock Housing Association chief executive Andrew Rowe has previously told The Canberra Times he thought community housing providers were being underutilised.