A federal minister has been urged by one of her Liberal colleagues to release a 701-hectare parcel of land in the outer northern suburbs of Canberra to enable thousands of new affordable homes.
A troubled joint-venture project to develop the CSIRO-owned land once known as the Ginninderra Experiment Station with the ACT government collapsed in 2016, despite the area being reclassified as urban.
An audit in 2020 revealed the Finance department identified legal problems that put further limits on what CSIRO was allowed do but the now decade-old project continued to stumble forward but without much progress.
Now, ACT senator Zed Seselja has written to Science and Technology Minister Melissa Price asking for land to be sold direct to the market.
"It's my first view that committing the CSIRO land will directly help Canberra families achieve the dream of owning their own home and further bolster the government's record of strong economic management," Senator Seselja wrote.
The Liberal senator has asked for the Commonwealth to commit to selling the land for the purpose of building standalone family homes, while potentially selling a portion to the ACT government.
Around 240 hectares of the land has already been identified as suitable for development without legislative changes, which could mean around 2000 new dwellings or housing for around 4500 people.
Further land could become suitable as the site's use by CSIRO changes. Updates from the site's management show it is no longer used for agricultural research, however ecological research has continued.
CSIRO itself sought to develop the land into a sustainable urban development of housing informed by science and innovation.
Since then, the median house price in Canberra slipped over $1 million for the first time this year, as demand continues to exceed supply of housing.
Demand for land is starkly illustrated by the oversubscribed ballots managed by the ACT government. Thousands of hopefuls entered for the opportunity to purchase in two newly released suburbs, which saw 7500 people apply for 115 blocks in Taylor and around 12,300 registered for the first 71 blocks of land in Macnamara since January.
"There is simply not enough land being released to keep up with the demand," Senator Seselja said.
"I strongly believe all Canberrans deserve the opportunity to fulfil the dream of owning their own home, but for many Canberra families the reality of ever achieving that dream is increasingly out of reach."
The ACT government, which has a monopoly on land release in the territory, has prioritised infill through medium- and high-density developments over single-dwelling blocks.
Nodi Karimova, a working mother of two, is looking to move into a bigger house with her family. She wants her children to have more space, but twice missed out in the Taylor and Macnamara ballots.
She put their names into a waiting list for house and land packages from the Macnamara release, but when four blocks were finally made available the prices were all about $1.3 million, above what her family could afford.
"This is just too expensive for us, and we both working, we're both professionals," she said. "I don't see how our kids will be able to afford it."
The Karimovas have looked at townhouses and will try again to purchase just land in future ballots to build their own home if more suburbs are released.
"We'll keep going, because that's the only way we can get into the market at this level of prices. I think they need to release more land so people can build," she said.
More land should be reserved for families that want to build instead of deciding people in Canberra only want apartments, she said.
Senator Seselja took aim at the infill policies of the ACT government and for its refusal to release further land in the Tuggeranong Valley.
"Unfortunately, Andrew Barr MLA is still refusing to release this land even with Commonwealth restrictions removed," he said.
"Labor and the Greens continue to stand in the way of family homes. They want to flood the market with units, and strangle housing supply."
