High values for state houses

Thursday, 19 January 2012

A three-bedroom property in Orakei is the country's most valuable state house, estimated to be worth nearly $1.3m.

In all, ten state houses are worth more than $1 million - all in Auckland.

Tenants in Wellington state houses are living in goldmines, with one Island Bay property worth nearly $750,000.

The six-bedroom home is the highest-valued Housing New Zealand property in the region, figures released under the Official Information Act show.

A four-bedroom home in Mt Cook comes in second at $649,102 and a five-bedroom dwelling in Berhampore is third, with a valuation of $618,167.

The capital value of the houses is at October 31 and includes the land, which was generally worth more than the state house, a Housing NZ spokeswoman said.

The Island Bay home, worth $749,522, is the 25th most valuable Housing NZ home in the country.

Meanwhile, 11 state houses were sold in the Wellington and Hutt Valley region last year for a total of $2.28m.

Six were sold to tenants and the remainder to private buyers once tenants had moved out.

Tenants paid $280,000 for a three-bedroom Titahi Bay house, which was the most expensive house sold in the region last year.

It was one of six properties to be sold in Porirua, where state housing is in high demand.

Four Lower Hutt properties and one Island Bay property were also sold last year.

Thirty houses were sold in the Manawatu-Taranaki-Wairarapa zone for a total of $3.1m.

In the East Cape-Hawke's Bay area, 27 houses were sold for a collective $2.89m.

Between July 2008 and last February more than $19m was made by selling 24 properties throughout the country worth more than $700,000 each.

Housing NZ assets general manager Sean Bignell said state houses were sold for a variety of reasons, not just because they were worth a fortune.

'These include the property being old and too expensive to maintain, no longer meeting customer needs, being highly valued, not performing financially, and not being in the right place to meet demand.

'It makes sense to sell properties of a higher value to reinvest in brand new warmer and drier state housing in locations where our customers need them.'

Final plans for new housing developments in Porirua and Lower Hutt, where state houses were demolished, are still being finalised.

Housing Minister Phil Heatley said the overall housing stock would remain relatively constant over the next three to five years.

'The Government's focus is on ensuring houses of the right size, right type, and right quality are located in areas of highest demand.'