Suburban Land Agency land sales miss budget by $22.9m in 2025-26

The Suburban Land Agency’s 2025-26 annual report, reported on 27 October 2026, shows land sales income of $406.4m, falling $22.9m short of its $429.3m budget for the year, even as income jumped 71.3% on the previous year. Region Canberra reported the annual report figures, and the detail below follows its coverage.

The shortfall equals 5.3% below the SLA’s own target. It comes despite income rising $169.1m on 2024-25’s $237.3m, a 71.3% increase. The SLA is the Territory’s land release and sales agency, the body that brings new blocks in Canberra’s growth suburbs to market. Revenue from contracts with customers for the year was $400.4m.

Why it matters

A land agency that beats its own prior-year result by 71.3% and still misses budget is a signal about the gap between how much land the market will absorb and how much the Territory planned to sell. The report attributes the shortfall to deferred settlements and softer, more uncertain market conditions, including slower sales rates, financing difficulties for buyers from higher interest rates and construction costs, and uncertainty about the national economy. Clearance rates slowed for commercial offerings, including packaged residential lots and multi-unit sites, and several key sites, including mixed-use land in Molonglo and the Whitlam Local Centre, remain unsold.

For a developer or builder tracking land supply into 2026-27, the budget miss points to settlement timing running behind the SLA’s own release schedule, not a collapse in demand. The agency still exceeded its own release targets by volume: residential releases beat target by 16%, mixed-use by 50.6% and commercial by 25.9%. A Suburban Land Agency spokesperson said “maintaining a consistent release program helps ensure land is available for new homes,” adding that some 2025-26 income reflects land released in earlier years, while some sites sold this year, on longer settlement periods or land-not-ready contracts, will show up as income in later years.

The numbers

The SLA booked $406.4m in land sales income for 2025-26, against a budgeted $429.3m, a $22.9m shortfall, a 5.3% miss on budget. Against 2024-25’s $237.3m, the 2025-26 result is up $169.1m, or 71.3%. By volume, the agency released 2,833 residential dwellings, up from 2,442 the year before, 76,813 square metres of mixed-use land, up from 51,021 square metres, and 26,302 square metres of commercial land, up from 20,887 square metres. For 2026-27 the SLA has budgeted total income of $434.3m, expecting land sales to rise.

What’s next

The report names Kingston Quarter, Watson Section 76 and Molonglo 1 among current and upcoming releases, alongside single lots in Whitlam and packaged lots and dual-occupancy sites in Jacka. That spread across inner, growth and infill areas gives developers and builders several entry points to the pipeline rather than a single release date to plan around, which matters given the report’s own note that some of this year’s income reflects land released in earlier years, and some of this year’s sales will not book as income until later years.

For anyone bidding on SLA land or timing a project around a release, the practical read is that the 2026-27 figures the agency is forecasting depend on settlements catching up, not on fresh demand appearing. The unsold mixed-use land in Molonglo and the Whitlam Local Centre is the clearest marker to watch: if those sites move in the current financial year, they help close the kind of gap that produced the $22.9m miss in 2025-26; if they stay listed without a buyer, the pattern of releases outpacing income is likely to repeat.

The result also lands in the same week the Territory moved to speed up approvals for smaller housing projects, cutting assessment timeframes for subdivisions and consolidations, a separate lever on supply timing that sits alongside the SLA’s own release schedule. Whether settlements catch up to the SLA’s $434.3m forecast, or the Territory again posts a result short of budget, will show in next year’s annual report.