The Government is so haphazard on housing that the Minister of Finance wasn’t even aware Kāinga Ora has been spending millions buying houses out from under the nose of potential first-home buyers, National’s Housing spokesperson Judith Collins says.

Information supplied to the National Party by Housing Minister Megan Woods shows Kāinga Ora purchased five properties on Nelson St in Howick, Auckland for $4.8 million last year.

“The Finance Minister was red-faced at Select Committee today after being told this was happening on his watch,” Ms Collins says.

“How can this Government credibly claim to be looking out for first-home buyers when it is spending so much public money buying homes in Auckland before others can get a sniff?

“Rather than spending almost $5 million on just five houses to inflate its state housing portfolio, the Government should be building new houses elsewhere.

“I am aware of other houses in Auckland that have been purchased by Kāinga Ora at a cost of nearly a million per house.

“This Government cannot be trusted on housing. KiwiBuild has been a complete disaster while many of the state houses the Government claims to have built were either contracted or already under construction when the previous National Government was in power.

“It’s a tragedy that almost 15,000 families are waiting for state houses under this Government because of its inability to build houses and its meddling in the rental market.

“The previous National Government built more than 3200 state houses and left office with more than 27,000 homes in the development pipeline. If elected this year we will restart our good work by actually delivering on our policies and getting rid of the RMA.”

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