$23 million housing development for New Plymouth suburb

Tuesday, 20 November 2018

After more than a decade of waiting, a New Plymouth suburb has been promised $23 million to build 68 Kiwi Build homes.

Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford made the announcement in Marfell on Tuesday morning.

Construction is due to begin in the next six months, with the first families moving in during mid-2019, Twyford said.

Two-thirds will be three-bedroom homes and the remainder four bedrooms. All of them will be built to a Homestar 6 rating with construction starting early next year.

**READ MORE: 

* Demolition begins on eight New Plymouth state houses left empty for years

* Marfell told to keep waiting after a decade with no answer on vacant state housing 

* Housing New Zealand the government have failed the people of Marfell, Andrew Little says**

Twyford was adamant this was not another empty promise for Marfell, which has been waiting for a makeover since 2008 when 28 state homes were removed from Discovery Pl and Banks St. 

But the 2010 Christchurch earthquake got in the way and the project came to a halt. 

'A couple of times over the last few years I have visited Marfell…because for me it was always a place that signified the lack of action on building more public housing,' he said.

'It will revitalise and rejuvenate this community. It will bring people back into this neighbourhood.'

Twyford said KiwiBuild is about restoring the Kiwi dream of home ownership to thousands of young families who typically would have been unable to buy their first home.

'Many of the KiwiBuild homes built at this development will be under $400,000, and all will have a maximum price of $450,000, meaning the mortgage repayments for houses in this price range will be same as the average rent for a three-bedroom home in New Plymouth.'

More than 1400 people had already registered interest, he said.​​

While conceding the homes were aimed at middle-income earners of $70-$90,000 who could take on a mortgage, rather than low-income families, a new government 'shared equity' scheme, where the government and private investors buy a share of the initial mortgage and the buyer later buys out the government, was also gaining traction.

'If we can pull that off, even your low to middle-incomes who want to take on a low-budget home will have that opportunity.'

Chair of the Housing NZ board, Adrienne Young-Cooper, said the works would start 'imminently' as soon as the contract was signed.

'You might see it as grass today but it will be earth tomorrow.'

New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom said councillor Shaun Biesiek had been 'banging down his door' about Marfell since day one.

'It will change the nature of this community. I'm sure there will be many people looking to invest in this.'

Marfell residents Luke Ah Kuoi and Krete O'Brien, with baby Tailor-Joe, said it would be a good thing for Marfell, although he did query the price of the homes.

'For a low-decile area, I think that's still pretty steep,' Ah Kuoi said. 'They're trying something, I guess.'

He said landlords also had to do some work on their properties 'instead of letting them run to the ground'.

'This is actually the cheapest place and it's still expensive for what it is.'

Community volunteer Ruth Pfister said she was grateful for what they were doing but she still had concerns.

'I'm just so mindful of those people who there's no way that they could be part of this.

'I do wonder about how it will work having people living here in a way that a lot of the people in the state housing sector couldn't even dream of having and how that might work socially.'