Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Good news builds for first home buyers, renters

First home buyers and renters are set to benefit from new measures to support affordable homes for people and their whānau, Housing Minister, Megan Woods said today.

“The initiatives I’m announcing today will continue the strong pipeline of building activity and support thousands of jobs, resulting in more affordable homes for first home buyers, as well as for renters on low to moderate incomes,” the Minister said.

“Not-for-profit groups looking to develop new rental homes for households on lower incomes that stay affordable over the long-term, can start the application process for the first tranche of funding available from the $350 million Affordable Housing Fund announced in Budget 2022.

“The first $50 million of this fund is targeted to rental developments for lower income people who cannot afford a market rent but can’t access public housing. This will make projects to develop and sustain new affordable rental housing financially viable.”

The Minister said the funding would be made available in areas with high need for affordable rentals including:

  • Auckland
  • Tauranga-Western Bay
  • Rotorua
  • Napier-Hastings
  • Wellington metro (including Wellington, Porirua, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Kapiti), and
  • Nelson-Tasman.

Minister Woods also announced new contracts for not-for-profit providers to develop a further 183 new affordable homes across the country, including:

  • 145 homes across Mangere, Papatoetoe, and Ōmokoroa, by NZ Housing Foundation
  • 15 homes in Waipā, by Bridge Housing Trust
  • 11 homes in Tauranga, by Doing Good Foundation
  • 4 homes in Palmerston North, by Homes for People Trust
  • 8 homes in Queenstown, by Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust.

“Our Progressive Home Ownership Fund is giving people who would not otherwise be able to own their own homes, the chance to do so with support like budgeting training and getting a deposit together,” Dr Woods said.

“We’re also keeping up the momentum of KiwiBuild developments by ensuring the rising costs facing the construction sector are addressed through price cap changes, along with changes to income caps to keep pace with the market.”

Another important change is allowing exemptions for price caps for larger family groups and for those with accessibility needs, the Minister said.

“These changes will allow developers and Kāinga Ora to deliver more KiwiBuild homes, as well as other market homes that we’ll expect to see on the ground in 2023/24,” she said.

The first round of the Affordable Housing Fund is targeted at rental developments for those people who struggle to meet the cost of a market rental but can’t access public housing. Registrations are open until 24 August 2022.

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