More revisions sought for change of use charge

The ACT government has released the revisions on the Change of Use Charge (CUC) that will apply to the territory set for July 1 next year.

Property Council ACT Executive Director, Catherine Carter, said that the reports, separately prepared by Professor Des Nicholls and Professor John Piggott, appear to respond to some of the issues, but not all of the areas of concern which have been raised by the Property Council about proposed changes to the CUC system. Currently, CUC applies when the lease is varied, through either by adding additional or higher value uses or increasing gross floor area.

“To begin with, the Property Council is very concerned about the proposed implementation date of 1 July 2011 as currently contemplated by the ACT Government,” Carter said. “The Property Council understands that there are a very substantial number of development applications which have proceeded through the development approval steps but which have not been converted into building approvals due to the fact that the amount of the CUC has yet to be resolved. Industry has basically stopped converting leases.”

“If it in fact transpires that there is a 13 month delay within the industry in finalizing residential crown lease variations, there will be a substantial interruption of residential land supply to the market. In addition to the impact on workforce in the Territory, the major effect will be that problems with housing supply and affordability will be exacerbated, which in turn will lead to increasing pressure on rental levels on existing stock,” she said
“Further work will need to be done to ensure that current proposals which are anti-land supply, anti-housing affordability and anti-sustainability are amended to ensure an outcome that all Canberrans can afford to live with,”Carter added.