Some people were putting worthless extensions and renovations on houses in North Canberra’s new development zone, and agents, architects and builders could be sued for not telling them about the changes, according to a landlords’ spokesman.
The president of the ACT Landlords’ Association and a principal of Cotswold Real Estate, Peter Jansen, said yesterday that there was widespread ignorance about changes to the Territory Plan, especially to what is known as the B1 Area. The B1 area is in the Northbourne Avenue corridor and affects about 900 blocks of land. Under the Territory Plan and guidelines that came into effect last week, these blocks can be amalgamated and three-storey units built on them.
Mr Jansen said people were doing renovations and extensions in areas that would be redeveloped. When they sold to developers, however, the price they got would be dependent upon land area; and extension or renovation would be irrelevant.
Builders, agents and architects either did not know or were not telling people about the changes. People misadvised could sue for negligence or breaches of the Trade Practices Act. He called on the ACT Government to advise all affected land owners by letter.
He called on planning authorities to advise anyone submitted plans for improvements in the area to advise people that they might not be making the best economic use of their land.
Recent sale prices and extension activity in the area suggested that people were not aware of the changes. Houses in the area had been advertised with “”excellent extension and renovation potential”.
The Minister for Land, Environment and Planning, Bill Wood, has said he had changed betterment tax arrangements to slow development in the area. The Government also decided that the B1 area contain a large number of blocks so that there would be sufficient supply to prevent speculation. However, as part of the Government’s policy of 50-50 infill-greenfields development it wanted better use of infrastructure in the city’s centre and to provide more life and people close to Civic.
Mr Jansen said that with more units coming on in the central areas, vacancy rates in the outer areas, especially Tuggeranong would go up. In the outer areas only larger houses with en-suites and big garages, which could not be replicated closer to town, would get tenants easily.
The Territory Plan was making Canberra a less uniform real-estate market with location becoming important.
A 19-group Save Our City Coalition has been formed under the chair of the Conservation Council of Canberra to oppose some aspects of the Territory Plan. Member groups of the coalition are concerned about dual occupancy and blocks of units being built in areas that previously had single residences only.