The Fyles Government has awarded a $12 million contract to demolish a public housing complex in The Narrows but the Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler has said it has not been decided how many public or affordable housing units would be part of the replacement buildings and they would see what developers “suggest”.

Ms Lawler said the $12 million contract had been awarded to Territory company NTEX Civil Construction and Demolition, to demolish and remediate the 76-unit public housing complex on Shiers St, The Narrows, a job she expected to he finished by March next year.

The government is also seeking expressions of interest in developers wanting to construct a replacement residential complex in a build-to-rent model, with the successful applicant being responsible “long-term” for asset and tenancy management.

The NT News reported Ms Lawler would not say how many of the units would be for public or affordable housing, with the paper reporting public housing priority wait times of six to eight years for a one bedroom apartment in Darwin or Palmerston, and four to six years for a two bedroom apartment.

“Developers will come back to the government with suggestions around what will go here. Whether that is a mixture of private, it might be build-to-rent, it might be social housing,” the NT News reported Ms Lawler said.

“So then you look at a mixture rather than just having complete public housing … we know that doesn’t work.

“It had been an area of lots of crime, lots of poverty, lots of things that shouldn’t have been happening. Over the last six to 12 months, housing has been decanting, making sure there are no new people in, that people have been placed elsewhere in the greater Darwin area.”

The minister did not predict when the new buildings would be finished.