Mayor Peter Flannery said the decision was an attempt to pull the local government area out of the Australia-wide housing crisis which has forced up construction costs.

Those rising costs have had a particular impact on large-scale developers and has led to several corporate collapses.

It comes as an industry briefing on the State Government’s $2 billion housing investment fund on Wednesday.

“We are coming out of the gates first and sending a strong message to the private sector that we are willing to work with them. We’ve already slashed red tape and we’re willing to sweeten the deal further by saving them literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on construction,” Flannery said.

“There are no tricks, no gimmicks, no hidden costs here for developers. The facility will just need to be managed by a community housing provider, but the building can remain privately owned by the developer.