Canberra calls for designs to help unlock more housing choices

Key points

• The ACT government has opened expressions of interest for the Canberra House Pattern Book Design Competition, a national search for designs of dual occupancies, townhouses and terrace homes. The aim is to help the territory reach its goal of enabling 30,000 new homes by 2030.
• The pattern book will be a library of pre-approved, architect-designed plans that projects can build without a development application. Planning minister Chris Steel said the initiative builds on the territory's missing middle reforms.
• Expressions of interest close on 4 December 2026.