Hon Kris Faafoi

Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing)

12th August 2019

Work is underway to build up to 153 new homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt, with the Housing New Zealand site being officially blessed today.

The new homes will help to meet the increasing demand for houses in Lower Hutt.

“It’s one of the largest public housing developments on a single site to be built in the Hutt Valley for decades” Associate Housing Minister Kris Faafoi says.

The Epuni site will consist of a mix of modern 1 and 2 bedroom apartments, and 2, 3, 4 and 5 bedroom houses. Many of the homes will be state homes, and there’ll also be affordable housing for sale on the market.

These homes are being built in three stages over the next two years with the first expected to be ready from the middle of next year.

“Housing New Zealand removed older state houses here that were past their lifespan, and through good design we are building the much needed quality homes for people in need that will help rejuvenate this mostly empty site,” Kris Faafoi says.

“The Epuni development is one of many underway in the Hutt Valley and is part of a pipeline to deliver up to 260 homes over the next two-three years.

“We are making great progress in increasing the pace and scale of the Government’s public housing build programme. This is reflected in some key numbers with the number of homes it’s building increasing significantly in recent years,” Kris Faafoi says.

· The Government committed significant new funding through Budget 2018 to fully fund an additional 6,400 Public housing places by June 2022 in order to meet emerging demand.

· In 2018/19 we have exceeded the target of 1,600 places with 2,178 public houses becoming available with 1,601 of these places being new builds.

· Between 1 November 2017 and 30 June 2019, the total number of Public Housing places increased by 3,101, of which 2,514 were new builds.

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