MEDIA RELEASE

6 November 2012

Half Truths About Housing New Zealand’s Redevelopment Work Miss The Point

Recent comments about Housing New Zealand operations, particularly our redevelopments miss the point – we need more state housing where there is demand, and less where there isn't demand says General Manager, Asset Development, Sean Bignell.

Recent suggestions that state housing redevelopments are part of a sell off plan are misleading. The truth is that we are increasing the number of homes where there is high demand for state housing while reducing numbers where there is low demand. Yes, this equates to a net reduction this year, of 299 homes (0.4 percent) in total, but all sales contribute to providing state homes where they are needed.

In the last financial year we added 235 properties to our portfolio in high demand areas, areas that are often more expensive, and where it’s more difficult to acquire homes than low demand areas. Alongside this we have made good progress realigning our portfolio to match demand by removing or selling properties in areas of low demand or where we plan on redeveloping.

Over the next year construction will begin across the country on a number of innovative redevelopments that will provide warmer, drier healthier homes in more sustainable mixed communities including social and private housing. Mixed communities lead to better social outcomes.

In addition, over the next four years we also have plans to increase the number of state rental houses in Auckland by around 1400.

Suggestions that we should consider renting homes in low demand areas to people who are not eligible for state housing, seem to be taking a short term view. This approach would simply not allow us to do our job of housing those most in need. Where housing demand is low we need to consider removing or selling our properties so we can invest in areas of high demand or upgrading and improving our properties.

We don’t take decisions about the required level of sale of state housing lightly. We use a sophisticated forecasting model that takes into account broad social and economic changes as well as demographic projections, to inform our planning about current and future need.

Last year we housed over 7,000 applicants - individuals and families who were prioritised as being most in need of state housing. The majority of these were housed in 10-13 days which is extremely responsive. We need to continue to be able to do this and it makes sense for us to ensure we have the right number of homes where they are needed to do this.

Our staff work very hard with thousands of people in need each year to assess them, give them housing advice and place those most in need into the right sized property in the right location.

It is no secret that managing state housing is challenging. Housing need is dynamic, we need to be agile in addressing this change and we are demonstrating this through our redevelopment work.

Over the next ten years we will work to realign our portfolio to match current and future demand by building, acquiring or reconfiguring properties in high demand areas. But this doesn’t mean we will just increase housing in areas that need more housing.

Simply adding more properties to areas that are already dense with state housing does nothing to improve the social outcomes for that community.

Our vision for the future is that state houses are part of healthy, sustainable, mixed communities. This will also help support the need for more affordable housing as we free up some of our under utilised land so a mix of state housing, private rental and affordable housing can be established.

We already have a number of redevelopments underway across the country to help achieve this including the redevelopment of land at Pomare in Wellington. We also recently completed repairs on 212 earthquake damaged houses in Christchurch and announced further work we will do in Christchurch to build between 200 and 350 new houses designed to meet the growing demand for affordable homes. At least 200 of these will be specifically for replacing damaged state housing with the balance providing housing options for others in need.

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More information addressing recent inaccuracies about Housing New Zealand operations can be found on the following webpage.

http://www.hnzc.co.nz/rent-buy-or-own/addressing-housing-demand

ENDS

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