Despite pledge, $30m of state houses sold
The Government has sold at least 146 state homes worth more than $30m since late 2017, despite Labour promising to stop the sale of state houses if elected to government.
From late October 2017, when Labour formed a coalition government, to December last year the Government’s housing agency, Ka¯ inga Ora, sold 146 state houses, figures released under the Official Information Act show.
But its housing development programme far outweighs that, with 2813 state homes having been built since June 2018 and a further 2596 under construction.
In the lead-up to the 2017 election Labour said if elected it would immediately end the sale of state houses.
In December that year, former housing minister Phil Twyford issued a press release saying the Labour-led Government had ‘‘cancelled the sell-off of state houses, fulfilling another of its first 100 day promises’’.
Twyford said it was the end of ‘‘large-scale’’ state housing selloffs. However, towards the bottom of the statement Twyford said it would still sell houses that were no longer fit for purpose.
Ka¯inga Ora government relations manager Rachel Kelly said as a general rule a house would not be sold when it became vacant. However, in some circumstances selling a property would be considered.
That included when a property was too old and expensive to maintain, no longer met tenants’ needs, or was not in the right place to meet demand, she said.
When Ka¯ inga Ora sold a house the money received was reinvested in the redevelopment of existing property or in buying new properties that would meet the needs of tenants, she said.
The total value received for the sale of homes between October 2017 and December 31, 2019 was $30.7m. The lowest priced home was sold for $38,000 and the highest for $1.7m.
Since October 2017, Ka¯ inga Ora had spent $568.3m buying new property. Its property portfolio was valued at the end of each financial year. As at June 30 last year it was worth $28.6 billion, she said.