10,000 homes to rise in place of 2700 old ones
Housing Minister Phil Twyford has announced a 15-year project to replace 2700 old state homes with
10,000 new homes.
Of those homes, 3000 will be state homes, 3500 will be affordable and KiwiBuilds, and 3500 market price homes.
The development was already being put together – but with 7000 homes – when the Government came to office.
Twyford said one of the first things he did upon coming to office was sign off on the business case for the project, which will take between
10 and 15 years.
‘‘Now consultation with affected families has been undertaken, we can lay out the plans publicly,’’ Twyford said.
‘‘Building of the first new state houses will start in the next few months and are due to be finished
mid-2019.
‘‘The first KiwiBuild and affordable homes will be complete towards the end of 2019 and early
2020.’’
The 3500 affordable homes will not necessarily all be KiwiBuilds – some may be sold under a shared equity scheme, and every KiwiBuild home has to be officially accepted into the KiwiBuild scheme.
Twyford said the houses would make great use of his planned light rail line between the central city and the airport.
‘‘Located near the route of the coming light rail line, the Mangere redevelopment is an example of the opportunities opened up by the creation of this new rapid transport network for Auckland.’’
Twyford said the crown-owned developer HLC would make sure the prices were kept low so people already living in the area wouldn’t be priced out.
‘‘I am determined that the local community benefits from this redevelopment and are not priced out of the new homes,’’ Twyford said.
‘‘Long-term rent and shared equity options are also under development.’’
The KiwiBuild policy aims to build 100,000 affordable homes over
10 years. One thousand are expected by July 1, 2019, and 5000 by July 1,
2020, then 10,000 the year after that. The prices will be capped at
$650,000 for three-bedrooms inside Auckland and Queenstown, $600,000 for two-bedrooms in those areas, and $500,000 for one-bedrooms there and homes everywhere else.
About half of them are expected to be built in Auckland.
One possible distribution of the homes was revealed in a Cabinet paper that mapped 100,000 homes to areas with the most need, placing
61,000 in Auckland, 13,000 in Wellington, and roughly 6000 in Hamilton.
But head of KiwiBuild Stephen Barclay told Stuff it was still far too early to say exactly how many homes would go where, other than that half would be in Auckland.
‘‘It’s too early to say – we’re not quite down to that level of detail yet.
‘‘The Government has not excluded any areas from KiwiBuild and is open to looking at a number of opportunities right across the country,’’ Barclay said.
‘‘The focus is obviously on areas with high demand and affordability pressures, such as Auckland where around 50 per cent of KiwiBuild homes are going to be delivered.
‘‘Over 90 per cent of the housing shortfall is in the top six areas: Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton, Napier-Hastings, QueenstownLakes District and Tauranga.’’
‘‘Now consultation with affected families has been undertaken, we can lay out the plans publicly.’’ Housing Minister Phil Twyford