Nurses and teachers would have first dibs on more affordable housing alongside other key workers in a pilot program promised by the Canberra Liberals.
The opposition wants to add an extra 2000 social and affordable homes to the capital's housing stock.
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said the Liberals would enable the community housing sector to have a larger role and seek greater access to funding from the federal government's housing Australia future fund.
"Boosting supply is critical in solving the housing crisis and the community housing sector is well placed to step up and fill the gap," Ms Lee said.
"Working with community housing providers and supplying them with suitable land, with no upfront costs, means they only have to fund the construction costs of the property, making it an attractive option."
A pilot program would be established in which homes are set aside for rent or purchase by key workers.
Key workers would also have access to a rental program through Housing ACT that allows them to pay 50 per cent of the market rate.
Eligible workers would be able to access a home buying program through HOPE Housing, which takes an equity stake in a home to reduce the upfront cost of buying a home and receives a portion of any capital gain.
Mark Parton, the Liberals' spokesman on housing, said: "Canberra has a key worker shortage and one of the main issues contributing to this in the ACT is the lack of affordable housing under a Labor-Greens government.
"A Canberra Liberals government will invest in a number of measures aimed at providing affordable housing to key workers and ensuring that they can live and work in our community."
The Liberals' plan includes offering 100 lots of residential land for mixed-use housing on a shared equity basis every year for four years to community housing providers.
Ten per cent of all new developments in the ACT would be reserved for social housing, the party said.
The party also said it would "incentivise" development on land zoned for community facilities to encourage affordable housing development, and offer land to community housing providers on 25-year peppercorn leases.
Mr Parton said a Liberal government would exempt community housing providers from paying lease variation charges to speed up housing development on community zoned land.
The Liberals would also spend $5 million to fix urgent maintenance issues in ACT public housing.
The opposition last week announced it would clear Kowen Forest, in the ACT's far east, as part of a plan to build 125,000 new homes and another town centre in Canberra by 2050. The Kowen development could add 100,000 new homes to the ACT's housing stock, Ms Lee said.
The plan was sharply criticised by Labor. Officials in 2004 considered it too expensive to develop the forest land and Chief Minister Andrew Barr in 2018 said it would not be touched by developers.
The Liberals have also promised to start a housing development in Symonston and to work with the federal government to develop the former CSIRO Ginninderra land.
But the Liberals say they will abandon plans to develop the western edge in Canberra and stop all investigative studies of the area.
