More choice likely for first-home buyers
Hamilton could be in line for cheaper homes in fast-track housing areas.
It’s good news for first-home buyers, a senior councillor says, but it’s not yet clear how good.
Central government made a push for 40 per cent of the homes in special housing areas to be eligible for KiwiBuild – its 10-year programme to build 100,000 homes for first-home buyers.
Hamilton Mayor Andrew King wants to help the Government make that happen, but council doesn’t yet know what price homes will need to be to qualify.
Special housing areas are intended to soak up city growth while a new area – such as Peacocke – gets going, and benefit from a sped-up resource consent process.
Six Hamilton areas are already being eyed for the developments, on which central government has the final sign off.
The people behind those say they can meet the government demands, Mayor Andrew King told councillors at a February meeting.
Picking up the 40 per cent affordability requirement would mean Hamilton City Council effectively did a yeah, nah, yeah on the topic, as councillors previously threw out a 20 per cent threshold.
That wasn’t lost on Councillor Mark Bunting, who previously pushed for affordability.
‘‘Why is it now a good idea to allocate a certain amount of affordability in the special housing areas when only [Cr] Dave [Macpherson] and I thought it was originally?’’ he asked at a February council meeting.
They had suggested 20 per cent affordability, he said, and now the Government was saying 40 – ‘‘suddenly it’s a good idea. What’s changed?’’
‘‘I’ll do whatever I can to work with central government to achieve what the government of the day wants for this country,’’ King replied.
‘‘The government of the day is trying to achieve one of their 100-day policies, which is KiwiBuild, and they’ve specifically asked us and pointed out what we can do to help them to do that. And I’m very happy to make that work for them.’’
This is good news for first-home builders but council can’t yet say how good, Cr Macpherson said after the meeting.
Council is waiting for the magic number – the price to qualify for KiwiBuild – from Government, but will discuss it at a meeting in Wellington next week.
‘‘All the developers who had put in special housing area proposals have said we’re [still] keen,’’ he said.
He’s heard Auckland could have a $600,000 limit but others have said Hamilton’s figure should be lower than the city’s median house price.
QV.co.nz pegs Hamilton City’s average home value at $544,935 in January 2018.
Labour’s information on KiwiBuild says homes outside Auckland were expected to be in the $300,000 to $500,000 range.
If affordable house prices are 6.8 times the median household income, Hamilton prices should be $450,000 to $490,000, Cr Angela O’Leary said.
Six Hamilton special housing areas are already in the process but, in future, the Government won’t consider anything that doesn’t meet the 40 per cent threshold, councillors heard.
Hamilton City councillors can have another look at the policy at any time, city growth manager Kelvyn Eglinton said.
The first six potential special housing areas will come back to council under the existing policy in March.