23 December 2014

New homes bring festive cheer to families in need

For 28 families in need, there is extra cause for celebration this festive season: these are the families that have all moved into brand new Housing New Zealand homes completed in December. Twenty of these newly-built homes are in Auckland, where demand for social housing is the greatest.

The new homes completed this month are indicative of both the gathering pace of construction and the build quality of the country’s leading social housing provider.

“Our priority is to provide safe, healthy homes for those in greatest need, for the duration of that need,” says Housing New Zealand Chief Executive, Glen Sowry. “Giving 28 families a Christmas they’ll always remember is of course fantastic, but our focus remains firmly on improving the lives of a much larger number of New Zealanders.”

Mr Sowry says that the Corporation remains on track to deliver 2000 new homes for families in need by the end of 2015. 700 of these will be in Christchurch as part of the rebuilt process, with the lion’s share of the balance to be built in Auckland. Importantly these new homes will be built to meet current and future demand.

“Next year in Auckland we will be developing a number of our Special Housing Areas, replacing some of our old three-bedroom homes on large sections with a greater mix of property types on the same land. These will feature low-maintenance two-bedroom properties for single parents and the elderly, as well as larger homes of four or more bedrooms to address issues of overcrowding for large families.”

Housing New Zealand owns around 7 per cent of Auckland’s residential property, therefore making better use of this considerable footprint will also support the city’s growth. In fact the intensification of Crown land is vital to release opportunities for affordable housing and private home ownership, says Mr Sowry, but this needs to be approached sensitively and sustainably.

“All new Housing New Zealand homes must meet strict architectural, urban design and safety criteria. To achieve this, our skilled development team is working alongside some of the city’s pre-eminent architects to create schemes that fit within their local context. Our guiding principle is that in the future, you will not be able to tell a social housing home from a private one.”

ENDS

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