KiwiBuild scheme being ‘recalibrated’

The Housing Minister knew in December that KiwiBuild wasn’t going to meet its targets and would need to be ‘‘recalibrated’’.

In late January, Phil Twyford said KiwiBuild’s ‘‘interim’’ targets for this electoral term had been scrapped as the Government reworked the programme.

It came after confirmation that the programme would fall drastically short of its first-year target to deliver 1000 homes by July 1 and would likely only deliver 300.

Yesterday, Twyford said he started looking at recalibrating KiwiBuild in December.

‘‘Around the pre-Christmas period, it became pretty clear as we were digging down into the numbers that it was going to be tough to meet the first targets that we set ourselves. There was a process of reflection over the summer.’’

Recalibrating meant looking at the basic concept and how to make it work better for first-home buyers and developers, he said.

Part of the reasoning for not being able to meet targets was that the Government found it harder to change the behaviour of developers through the Buying Off The Plans scheme than it had anticipated.

The key was to make it more

attractive to developers, which Twyford said he was currently working on. He planned to table a ‘‘recalibration’’ paper, with proposals on how to strengthen the programme, to Cabinet in a few weeks.

The Government was not stepping away from the policy, he said.

‘‘We are focusing on the 100,000 . . . we are as committed as ever, and will continue to be completely transparent about what we are doing and what results we are delivering, right across the whole housing reform programme.’’

Stuff reported last week that KiwiBuild homes that did not sell in the ballot in Wanaka were now being offered to the public.

In November, three of the 10 homes offered for sale in the Northlake development had not sold to buyers drawn from the KiwiBuild ballot.

But now six finished properties are listed for sale. Although buyers will not have to go through a ballot to purchase them, they still must meet KiwiBuild purchase criteria.

The four three-bedroom homes are priced at $635,000 to $645,000, and two two-bedroom homes are selling for between $565,000 and $575,000.

Twyford said it was too early to conclude if the Wanaka houses were proving hard to shift or wouldn’t sell.

KiwiBuild is the Government’s flagship housing policy, a promise to build 100,000 affordable homes over the next 10 years.

The homes have a $650,000 price cap inside Auckland and Queenstown and a $500,000 price cap in other areas of the country.

The 1000 homes target was set to be followed by 5000 homes the following year then 10,000 the year after that.

‘‘There was a process of reflection over the summer.’’ Phil Twyford