On KiwiBuild’s fifth birthday there are still more Kāinga Ora staff members than KiwiBuild houses built, says National’s Housing spokesperson Chris Bishop.

“Labour came to office promising 100,000 Kiwibuild houses but five years after its official launch on July 1, 2018, just 1,783 houses have been built. On current progress it will be another 245 years until Labour hits its own target of 100,000 new Kiwibuild houses.

“Meanwhile, new data reveals that the number of fulltime staff employed by Kāinga Ora has increased from 1,944 full time staff in 2019/2020 to almost 3,300 in April 2023. Astonishingly, the increase in Kāinga Ora staff since 2019 almost matches the number of KiwiBuild houses actually built.

“Labour promised to fix New Zealand’s housing crisis but, on every metric, things are worse now than when Labour came to office.

“Rents have increased by $170 per week under Labour, the state house waitlist has increased by over 20,000 applicants, and 3500 families live in motels, with the government spending $1 million per day on their accommodation costs.

“KiwiBuild has been a complete disaster while Kāinga Ora is a basket case. It has added 1,300 staff in the last three years but has proven incompetent at actually building houses. Instead, it has bid against first home buyers, driving up the price of land, and refuses to actually take action against tenants who abuse and terrorise their neighbours.

“Where Labour has failed, National will succeed. National will fix New Zealand’s housing crisis by unlocking land for housing inside and around our cities, building infrastructure, and making sure communities share in the benefits of growth.

“National will bring common sense back to the private rental market by bringing back interest deductibility for rental properties, unlocking the potential of Build to Rent housing, and making sensible changes to tenancy laws to encourage landlords back into the market.

“The next National Government will get housing back on track and will get New Zealand back on track”.

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