Greater Canberra’s 2022-23 ACT Budget submission focuses on the economic costs of Canberra’s skyrocketing rents, which are the highest of any Australian capital city.
“Canberrans pride ourselves on being a community where people of all backgrounds can find economic opportunities. But our current exclusionary planning laws and high rents mean those opportunities are increasingly out of reach, as many Canberrans are pushed into poverty. We need a planning system that creates more housing options for all Canberrans, young or old.” - Howard Maclean, Greater Canberra
Because rent payments make up a large part of the household budget for young and low-income families, recent rent increases have significantly reduced discretionary incomes, and made it hard for employers to attract new talent to the ACT.
Greater Canberra analysis of interstate migration data shows that high rents are causing many potential future Canberrans to forgo moving to the ACT altogether.
“Our broken housing market is hurting residents and turning new arrivals away from the ACT. That means fewer people able to rejoin family in Canberra, fewer talented employees for ACT businesses, and fewer people able to take advantage of our abundant renewable energy.” - Howard Maclean
Greater Canberra’s ACT Budget submission calls for planning reforms to enable more medium-density Canberra homes, along with the inclusion of housing affordability as a core objective of the new ACT Planning Bill.
The submission also joins other ACT community organisations such as ACTCOSS in calling for the ACT Government to speed up social and community housing supply.
The submission can be read in full here.