Property Council Interim ACT Executive Director Gino Luglietti said the passing of the Bill today would stifle investment and result in fewer homes in the middle of a housing crisis.
“It’s a dog’s breakfast – a Bill that will kill off national and international investment, create uncertainty, drive more construction insolvencies, and reduce housing affordability.
“This legislation will create multiple casualties from a catastrophic plan to make property developers responsible for building defects that are outside of their control,” Mr Luglietti said.
Mr Luglietti said the property industry backed the broad intent of the legislation – to build in more protections for consumers with a new licensing scheme and rules for residential property developers.
“But the Bill hasn’t been thought through – most egregiously it requires developers to be solely responsible for the rectification of all defects even if those developers are not responsible for the building work that led to the defects,” Mr Luglietti said.
“It makes property developers liable for work completely outside of their control and, even worse, it means Directors in property development companies could be personally liable for work undertaken 10 years before they even became a Director.
“The Bill doesn’t stand up to scrutiny and won’t do anything to attract the investment required for the housing we need – in fact it will have the opposite effect of driving investment away,” he said.
Mr Luglietti called on all parties ahead of the October election to commit to a review of the details of the Bill to ensure its implementation addressed the unintended consequences.
“The broad objectives of the Bill align with the Property Council’s own goals to support the industry with a strong social licence to operate. But the finer details – that the government seems to hope will go unnoticed – are at best ill-considered and will serve only to create further significant burdens on an already beleaguered property sector,” Mr Luglietti said.
“As passed, this Bill is 10 per cent common-sense and 90 per cent over-reach – and our sector is unanimous in calling for an urgent review before it brings an axe down on the already stretched potential for housing and construction growth in the ACT.”
