The Government has hiked the price of its three-bedroom KiwiBuild houses in Auckland by 8 per cent, or $50,000, in spite of average house prices growing by less than 1 per cent, National’s Housing and Urban Development spokesperson Judith Collins says.

“With the market flat to falling as a result of the massive building boom underway under the previous Government, and Auckland prices rising only 0.8 per cent in the year to April, Housing Minister Phil Twyford is desperately trying to keep his flailing KiwiBuild policy alive.

“But to do that he’s breaking his promise to deliver those houses to New Zealanders for a maximum of $600,000 per house, to ‘build’ 100,000 of them for $2 billion and to use the purchasing power of the Government to bring prices down.

“In actual fact he’s pushing prices up faster than the wider market, he’s blowing his budget and he’s stuffing the housing market to do it.

“Mr Twyford even had to admit today that in spite of his unequivocal promises to New Zealanders he hadn’t even bothered to check his costings, in spite of the fact they were developed two years ago, until just two weeks ago. That’s negligent, Phil.

“And when someone else checked for him he realised his numbers were incorrect and as a result the prices of his KiwiBuild houses had climbed $50,000 to $650,000. That’s bad news for homebuyers, Phil.

“And to top it off, rather than fronting up he tried to sneak the price increase out in his plea to the private sector for help. That’s tricky, Phil

“What has Phil Twyford been doing for eight months, aside from raising fuel taxes?

“So far all he has to show for his flagship KiwiBuild hoax is a few purchase agreements for houses already being built. That’s certainly not adding to overall supply, Phil

“In the meantime confidence in the housing market is dropping, developers are balking at working with a Government which clearly doesn’t know how to do anything but throw cash at a problem and the rate of house building is slowing.

“Phil Twyford promised to make it easier to get into houses but so far he’s doing the exact opposite.”

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