Hon Steve Maharey
Acting Minister of Housing

More, bigger state houses

Budget 2003 injects an additional almost $100 million over the next four years into the government’s state house purchase programme to enable the purchase of around 318 more houses on top of the 3000 already planned.

Announcing the increase, Acting Housing Minister Steve Maharey said the $95.26 million in capital funding and $2.11 million in operating funding took the total acquisition budget over the next four years to around $600 million.

“About 73 percent of the new houses will be in Auckland, where waiting lists are highest,” he said.

“Some of the new funding will also go towards converting 80 three bedroom houses into four bedroom or larger homes to better suit bigger families..

“Currently only about 8 per cent of Housing New Zealand houses have four or more bedrooms. Forecasts suggest that figure needs to be much higher and reconfiguring existing houses is often the more cost effective way of meeting that need,” Steve Maharey said.

ENDS

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