Land Rent Scheme eases Canberra’s housing affordability bottleneck
Announcement posted by Beyond Bank Australia 06 Jan 2012
The Australian Capital Territory’s Land Rent Scheme is celebrating two years in operation and in that period helped many people get into their own home.
The Scheme, developed and implemented by the ACT Government and leading credit union, Community CPS Australia, assists people in the local community by offering home loans for houses built on land rented from theACT Government.
Community CPS Chief Executive Officer, Robert Keogh, said the Scheme was becoming increasingly popular, particularly with first homebuyers and young families.
“Because buyers only need to borrow the money for the house and not the land, it reduces the deposit required substantially. Without the Scheme the dream of owning their own home would remain elusive for many,” said Mr Keogh.
“As a mutually owned organisation housing affordability is an issue very close to our hearts, and we are pleased that, together with the ACT Government, we can help more people to break out of the rent-cycle and get into their own home sooner.
“So far we have approved land rent loans to the value of $40 million, with loans advanced approaching $10 million,” he said.
Canberra father of two, Nathan Hargreave, and his family are among those who have benefited from the Scheme, and are very excited to move into their four-bedroom family home in Bonner within the coming weeks.
“The Scheme is an ideal way for young families to get into their dream home quicker. Because we are renting the land, our mortgage repayments are only for the house and are just marginally higher than what we are paying in rent now – which means my wife can remain in part-time employment and spend more time with our one- and two-year-old boys,” said Mr Hargreave.
“I also like the fact that we can buy the land at any stage if we wanted to, but until then the increase on annual land rent payments is capped, which makes it much easier to plan our family’s financial future without having to fear tremendous increases in land rent.
“With building costs and land values increasing steadily, the Scheme has helped us build our dream family home much earlier than we could’ve otherwise afforded, especially on only one full-time income,” he said.
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