6000 sign up for KiwiBuild home on first day

Close to 6000 people have registered their interest in a KiwiBuild home in less than a day, six times the number of homes planned for the year.

The Government is expecting to build only 1000 of its 100,000 affordable homes before July 2019.

But, not long after the eligibility criteria were announced yesterday morning, buyer interest flooded in, with 1100 people registering their interest by 10.45am. At 4.45pm, 5950 people had registered.

The Government isn’t planning on having 6000 homes ready until July 2020.

Eligible people will go into a ballot once more homes are actually completed. The ballot is likely to work on a location-by-location basis.

‘‘By 10am this morning 1000 registrations had been received,

2800 by lunchtime, and 5950 by

4.45pm. At one point the KiwiBuild Unit was receiving 15 registrations a minute,’’ Housing Minister Phil Twyford said yesterday.

‘‘The KiwiBuild Unit officially opened its doors to the public today, and they didn’t so much as enter but break the door down.’’

The first 18 KiwiBuild homes in south Auckland aren’t expected to be ready until next month.

The eligibility criteria set out an income cap of $180,000 for couples or $120,000 for sole buyers.

Citizens and permanent residents will be able to buy homes, as long as they don’t sell them or rent them out for three years.

The homes will be available to all first-home buyers and most ‘‘second-chancers’’ – usually people who go through a divorce and have lost property. Second chancers must not have assets exceeding $120,000 in Auckland,

$100,000 in most other cities, or

$80,000 for the rest of New Zealand.

Those who have registered interest will still need to go through a pre-qualification eligibility check before being eligible for the ballot.

The online registration features a tickbox list of areas, which suggests likely locations for KiwiBuild developments. Those locations are Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Queenstown, Dunedin, Hamilton, Hastings, Invercargill, Napier, New Plymouth, and Palmerston North.