Commercial and residential projects could go back to the planning table due to the uncertainty in the proposed National Broadband Network (NBN).

Executive director Caryn Kakas of the Residential Development Council considered the implementation of the Labor party's NBN as “a giant guessing game.”

Kakas said, “Most developers are putting their hands up in the air and saying: when is the NBN going to appear on the scene? What is the rollout potential? Do they have the capacity? How will we engage with them and how is this going to work?”

The deal between the Labor party and telecommunications provider Telstra (ASX: TLS) will cost $11 billion and it was supposed to have taken effect last year. Under the agreement, Telstra will cover the costs of installing the fibre wires in new commercial and residential projects, while real estate developers will be covering the costs of pits and ducting.

Parliament, however, has not yet decided on the proposed deal before the August elections were called. The cost of installing fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure would have to passed on to new homeowners.

A property owner of a newly constructed house of commercial building would have to shell out around $3000 just to have broadband. Telstra explained “Developers can go to Telstra or a number of other providers to roll out FTTP and we, like other providers, may require a contribution from the developer to make it commercially viable.”