DHA blamed for Darwin building slowdown

A national housing construction agency has been slammed for distorting the Top End housing market and prioritising an interstate rival. Read who it is.

Land cleared for Defence Housing Australia’s estate at Lee Point.

Years of frustration and delays at Defence Housing Authority’s Lee Point residential development have spilt over, with the housing sector breaking its silence on the dud project.

Since constructing 96 homes in the project’s first phase, the DHA has buckled to protests, with no new homes built at the 700-lot housing project since 2022.

And there’s no end in sight, with DHA refusing to specify when work would recommence beyond saying it would “in coming months”.

The heads of the Northern Territory’s two peak construction bodies, Master Builders NT and Housing Industry Association NT, said DHA’s dithering and delay was hitting the economy and residential construction sector.

Master Builders NT chief executive Damien Moriarty asked why DHA had left the project in limbo.

Protests at Lee Point July 2023

“Builders, like any business, need certainty to plan their work and future,” he said.

“Residential builders are particularly exposed to land not going to market. DHA not providing any certainty one way or another on Lee Point has impacted our residential builders for years now.

“To illustrate this, they invited builders back in 2018 to a display village that never happened, only to release a handful of blocks for homes in the years that followed.

“This uncertainty has contributed to the slowdown in building and land releases from private developers, who informally have advised Master Builders they remain cautious about a flood of government backed DHA blocks that could hit the market at any moment — but ultimately never do.”

He said DHA had no such timidity in Townsville, where it delivered another 420 homes last year, while the Territory continued to be overlooked.

“A real commitment here by DHA, either to partner with existing developments as they have in Townsville or to push on and develop Lee Point, would not only support our local builders but also go a long way to meet National Housing Accord targets and ease pressure on rentals.”

Housing Industry Association NT director Luis Espinoza. Picture Julianne Osborne

HIA NT chief executive Luis Espinoza mocked the timidity of DHA and the federal government.

“One can only wonder why and how is it that small groups of people can hold a body like DHA and federal government from going about their business of building homes for defence force personnel,” he said.

“Even after all necessary approvals were sought in readiness years earlier.

“The NT needs population growth, we need to attract businesses, people and their families to set roots in this part of Australia and we will not achieve this with the typical NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude that a lot of people have.

“I see the potential that the shifting of defence force personnel to the Top End has, but questions are still asked about where will these people and their families live? What schools and other services will they require? Are we simply going to put further burden on our existing old infrastructure and tired services and personnel?

“If federal powers are not able to get their projects off the ground due to red tape and environmentalist groups, what hope would other investors have when coming to the NT to spend their money to help grow the economy?”

Master Builders NT chief executive Damien Moriarty. Picture Gary Shipway

DHA said at least 217 of Lee Point’s proposed homes would be retained for ADF housing. The project would be built over eight stages, and the DHA planned to commence civil works for stages two and three “in the coming months”.

The federal government finalised its DHA contract in 2015 and the project was well on its way when greenies spotted a gouldian finch at the site around 2021.

This began four years of protests and later, Larrakia custodians said they had identified “significant areas of cultural heritage”.

Work on the project failed to resume in March last year after the federal minister for Environment and Water determined Lee Point was not a significant Aboriginal area under Commonwealth law.

As a former Defence site during WWII and used by Defence from the early 1950s, Lee Point holds historic Defence structures, some of which, including a bunker, will remain following housing construction.

The development will provide land for schools, a community centre and a potential childcare centre.

Additionally, 33.9ha of land will be preserved for conservation purposes, with about 22 hectares of this being transferred to expand the Casuarina Coastal Reserve.

Originally published as DHA blamed for Darwin building slowdown