AdelaideNow... Land bank's policy 'is driving up prices'

Commentry on article by Greg Kelton on 6 Mar 2007 (emphasis my own):

AdelaideNow... Land bank's policy 'is driving up prices':

THE state's biggest landholder - the Land Management Corporation - has been accused of hurting new home buyers by creating false land shortages, driving up prices. ...

In a submission to Parliament's Statutory Authorities Review Committee, the Housing Industry Association says
...

'The dominant practices of LMC are also exposing the taxpayers of SA to enormous financial risk and undermining affordability through anti-competitive practices,' the HIA submission says.

The HIA warns:

THE state is in danger of losing its traditional competitive advantage of affordable housing.

THE LMC has shifted its role to that of maximising profit and return for the Government, which exacerbated affordability problems.

RESTRICTIONS on the urban growth boundary has created a 'chronic shortage' of residential land, leading to massive increases in prices.

Infrastructure Minister Patrick Conlon yesterday said the claims were 'extreme and absurd'.

He said they were motivated by greed, and the private development sector's 'long-standing antipathy' towards the corporation was because the developers wanted to make more "

Minister Conlon's claims of 'extreme and absurd' I feel are misplaced. I came to the same conclusions about land prices and the urban boundary independantly. and this was one of my main issues when I ran for Mayor of Onkaparinga last year.

In fact, one of the goals outline in the charter of the LMC is to make profit. So the government creates the virtual monopoly (via the Urban Boundary) and the LMC makes the profit for the government!

Talk about putting the cat in charge of the canary!