ACT passes missing middle bill, scraps lease step for granny flats

The ACT Legislative Assembly has passed the Planning (Missing Middle Housing) Amendment Bill, Planning and Sustainable Development Minister Chris Steel confirmed on 25 October 2026, cutting approval timeframes for smaller subdivisions and consolidations and removing the Crown lease variation step for granny flats and other secondary residences.

The bill follows missing middle zoning reforms that took effect on 1 July, which opened up subdivision and consolidation on RZ1 blocks. Steel said the new laws target the approvals process itself, clearing steps that had slowed take-up of those zoning changes.

The government’s own examples show the range of projects affected: a Curtin family adding a granny flat for a teenage son, a Red Hill builder delivering a three-home townhouse project, a Higgins owner subdividing an unused part of a block to sell to a young family, and a developer consolidating three blocks in Kambah for a six-home terrace project. Each previously needed a separate Crown lease variation or a slower DA pathway before work could start.

Why it matters

For an owner or small builder on a single-dwelling Crown lease, the bill removes a step that previously sat between a zoning entitlement and a development application. Subdivisions and consolidations will no longer be assessed as “significant development,” so they skip the two rounds of public notification that classification required. Secondary residences, such as granny flats, no longer need a separate Crown lease variation at all. Every single-dwelling Crown lease now carries an automatic entitlement to build one. Minor lease variations, including changes to the number of dwellings permitted, move to the exempt development pathway, with no DA required.

Property Council ACT and Capital Region executive director Ashlee Berry said the bill was practical reform that helps convert the missing middle zoning rules into completed homes. “This is good, practical reform that makes it easier to turn Canberra’s new Missing Middle planning rules into actual homes,” she said. Berry said feasibility, investment and delivery challenges still stand between an approval and a finished home, and flagged those as the focus of the Property Council’s Capital Region Housing Summit on 17 November.

HIA ACT and Southern NSW executive director Geordan Murray welcomed the changes as a practical step toward a more efficient planning system, saying the next test is whether the reforms translate into faster approvals and more homes actually built, not just a shorter process on paper.

The numbers

The statutory assessment timeframe for subdivision and consolidation DAs drops from 60 working days, which previously came with two rounds of public notification, to 30-45 working days. Minor Crown lease variations, including changes to permitted dwelling numbers, move to the exempt development pathway, cutting assessment to 10 days with no DA required. Both changes build on the missing middle zoning reforms enabling subdivision and consolidation on RZ1 blocks, which have been in effect since 1 July.

What’s next

The Property Council’s Capital Region Housing Summit on 17 November will bring government, industry and community figures together on feasibility and delivery, the gap both Berry and Murray flagged as the remaining barrier now that the approvals process itself has been shortened. Neither the bill nor Steel’s office has set a date for reviewing whether approval volumes rise under the new timeframes. Builders weighing whether to use the faster pathway are doing so against a sector already under strain: construction firms made up 45.6% of ACT insolvencies over the three months to August, against a 24% national average (more on that pressure).