Appeal for major rethink on KiwiBuild

KiwiBuild will have to change and the Government might be better off building social or rental houses if it’s to reach its goal of 100,000 houses, economist Shamubeel Eaqub says.

‘‘People have really misunderstood KiwiBuild, it’s such a complicated thing. It’s a complete distraction,’’ he said.

KiwiBuild aims to increase the housing supply by facilitating the building of 100,000 homes within the next decade.

Another 250,000 would normally be built by the private market over that time and Eaqub estimates the country will be another 200,000 short.

With KiwiBuild having difficulty getting projects off the ground, he suggested it might be time to switch to building social housing or even rental houses, because buyers aren’t at the price points that KiwiBuild houses are selling for.

‘‘The underlying issue of affordability never went away, and that’s been the Achilles heel of KiwiBuild from the beginning,’’ Eaqub said.

‘‘The reason why I think build to rent has to be the answer is because that is how they solved the housing crisis postwar in Europe.’’

He said the Government was planning to fail.

‘‘Not only are we not keeping up with population growth, we are not even meeting current need.’’

Eaqub said that KiwiBuild was not fit for purpose and should be changed to meet the greatest need. He said there were good economic reasons for doing so and noted that the accommodation supplement was a huge and growing cost for the Government.

‘‘Build to rent has to be the answer.’’ Shamubeel Eaqub