‘Home for Life’ pledged

The Greens Party is pledging to build 10,000 new homes for people who can’t afford a deposit, giving them a boost onto the property ladder through ‘‘progressive ownership’’.

It’s a reaffirmation of the party’s 2014 election promise, with an expansion to provide community housing providers with low-interest loans to build more homes.

Co-leader Metiria Turei launched the policy at the Habitat for Humanity conference in Rotorua.

Building more houses ‘‘that people can actually afford’’ was critical to solving the housing crisis, she said.

The policy was centred around a ‘‘progressive home ownership’’ platform, or rent-tobuy. It would see 10,000 homes built over 10 years, and progressive home owners would pay a weekly payment of no more than 30 per cent of their income.

Part of each payment would be rent to cover the Crown’s costs, while the remainder would purchase equity shares in the home. That meant the time taken to outright buy a home would vary, depending on how much the tenant was able to pay.

Turei said the plan would save people more than $100 per week, compared to a mortgage. It would work alongside any Government plan to build more affordable homes.

That would likely be a Labour Government, with the Greens’ signing a memorandum of understanding to campaign on a common platform with Labour, earlier in the year. The two parties would collaborate on policies and views where an agreement could be reached. It’s understood the policy has the support of Labour.

In addition to the 10,000 houses sold directly to consumers, Community housing providers would be able to purchase 5000 newly-built houses from a Government that included the Greens, through a progressive rent scheme.