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.
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