Party advises to build new houses outside Auckland
The National Party has slammed the government for being so “haphazard on housing” that it missed out on Kainga Ora spending almost five million to buy only five properties.
Housing Minister Megan Woods revealed that Kainga Ora purchased five properties in Howick, Auckland, for $4.8 million last year – without the knowledge of the Minister of Finance.
“The Finance Minister was red-faced at Select Committee after being told this was happening on his watch,” Judith Collins, spokesperson for the National Party, commented. “How can this government credibly claim to be looking out for first-home buyers when it is spending so much public money buying homes in Auckland before others can get a sniff?”
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Collins advised the government to build new houses outside Auckland rather than “spending almost $5 million on just five houses to inflate its state housing portfolio.”
“I am aware of other houses in Auckland that have been purchased by Kāinga Ora at [the] cost of nearly a million per house,” she said. “This government cannot be trusted on housing. KiwiBuild has been a complete disaster while many of the state houses the government claims to have built were either contracted or already under construction when the previous National Government was in power.”
“It’s a tragedy that almost 15,000 families are waiting for state houses under this government because of its inability to build houses and its meddling in the rental market,” she continued. “The previous National Government built more than 3,200 state houses and left office with more than 27,000 homes in the development pipeline. If elected this yea,r we will restart our good work by actually delivering on our policies and getting rid of the RMA.”
