The land would be remediated with soil removed to the point where tests showed no remaining asbestos, he said.

Some Mr Fluffy home owners are concerned about ongoing stigma attached to their properties, even once the houses are gone and the topsoil replaced.

Mr Kefford confirmed information would remain on the building file of the 1000 affected homes, showing they had been part of the loose-fill program and the demolition and remediation since. But he said the properties would be clean.

"It is possible to demolish a house with loose-fill asbestos safely and without there being a risk to neighbouring property," he said. "It's an area of work which is very heavily regulated and at the point where the houses are actually being knocked over, either the lose-fill asbestos has been removed or it has been bonded to the structures so the prospect of the fibres escaping is being controlled."

He pointed to a demolition of a Fluffy house in Woden in July, where he said asbestos removalists had worked for a fortnight before the building was knocked over to remove the remaining fibres and glue the rest to the structure, so by the time it was knocked over it was safe. Dust-suppression measures would be in place during demolition, along with air monitoring.

"The whole thing is designed so at the point it is actually knocked over, the fibres are controlled and there is active dust suppression and active air monitoring to make sure that it's working," he said.

With the Woden home, the internal walls were removed so the remaining fibres could be taken out before demolition, but the taskforce has been considering how to handle double-brick houses, where the load-bearing wall is on the inside, so the outside wall must come off first to clean asbestos from the wall cavities. Mr Kefford confirmed some would have to be "bubble wrapped" – effectively enclosed in a tent – but for others, it would be safe to use technologies such as foam products, glue and water suppression to prevent fibres escaping.

"It is possible to demolish a double-brick house safely and not necessarily by putting it in a bubble," he said. "It is something we are continuing to explore, but all of the advice we're getting from the industry is it can be done safely."

Each house would be assessed separately and have a demolition plan in place.

"If the advice is this house needs a bubble because it's so bad, then there will be a bubble."

Asked about an exclusion zone around houses, he said "the bloke standing on site spraying dust suppression might wear a suit", but "the whole process is designed from beginning to end to prevent fibres from escaping".

Once the house was down, 10 centimetres of soil would be removed from under the footprint of the house and a little wider, then the soil would be tested. If it showed asbestos fibres, "you keep digging and then you test again".

"This is a heavily regulated process. At the point that the asbestos assessor is prepared to sign off that the site is clean, they stop digging."

In the Downer demolition last year, 30 centimetres of soil had been removed. In Woden, testing had been clear after 10 centimetres.

"You need to be in a position to say this block has been remediated, which means we tested, we didn't find anything, we replaced the dirt to ground level with clean fill and this block is now remediated," he said.

"We're getting a lot of questions about this, but the point is it can be done safely. It is a very tightly regulated space and at the end of that process it is possible to say that it's been done properly and safely."

The government is considering a buyback and demolition of the 1000 homes.