KiwiBuild is failing to deliver on its key objective to get Kiwi families into their first homes, National’s Housing spokesperson Judith Collins says.

“Housing Minister Phil Twyford has recently announced another KiwiBuild development where all of the houses are one or two-bedroom units.

“But 80 per cent of New Zealanders who have registered for KiwiBuild want a three or four bedroom home. A reasonable request considering most first home buyers have children, or are wanting to expand their family.

“A year into Government and Mr Twyford’s KiwiBuild scheme has only 70 houses under construction and 56 of those are two bedrooms or smaller.

“On top of this, earlier this year the Minister told his Cabinet colleagues that smaller houses were likely to be built to achieve the price points for the programme.

“Mr Twyford wasn’t confident in Parliament today when asked whether he would be able to build sufficient three-bedroom houses in Auckland for the $650,000 affordable price point, only saying his Government would do their very best to achieve that.

“Mr Twyford has repeatedly argued KiwiBuild will be a housing programme for all, with a mixture of homes suitable for ‘big families, small families, couples without kids, single parents with kids, people who live alone with their cat’.

“But he’s yet to deliver on that promise. So far in the Mt Albert development properties consist of nine studio apartments, six one-bedroom and three two-bedroom apartments.

“The Minister is so determined to build 1000 houses that he does not care how he gets there. He is simply building small homes that are only fit for one person and a cat.

“He needs to ensure that KiwiBuild is suitable for the Kiwi families he claims it will deliver for.”

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