- Hon Dr Megan Woods
A new affordable housing development has been officially opened in the Auckland suburb of Avondale by the Minister of Housing, Hon Dr Megan Woods, today.
The Aroha development marks the completion of 117 apartments, of which 47 are affordable KiwiBuild homes, on Auckland’s Great North Road.
“This development is an example of a Government partnership with iwi and private developers to deliver affordable housing,” said Dr Woods.
“I see every day how the partnerships we make are critical to the delivery of affordable housing. I signed the development agreement for this proposal in December 2020 and it is pleasing to see it completed just two and a half years later.
“This is another illustration of this Government’s work to turn around the housing crisis we inherited. It is just one of many green shoots of change, with record house building and significant investment in infrastructure like pipes and roads to unlock more housing supply.
“Alongside investing in infrastructure, recent increases to the KiwiBuild pricing caps have seen more proposal for Government-underwritten projects in the six months to December, than in the previous two years.
“Given the significant interest from experienced housing developers and our changes to the scheme’s settings, I expect momentum to continue in the next six to 12 months.
“I want to congratulate the developers, Marutūāhu Ockham, and acknowledge their successful partnership with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s Land for Housing programme,” Megan Woods said.
The partnership with Marutūāhu Ockham has resulted in four contracted developments that will deliver 541 high quality apartments, including 199 KiwiBuild homes.
Ends
Notes to editors
Marutūāhu Ockham is a partnership between Marutūāhu Rōpu and Ockham Residential. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s role under the Land of Housing programme is to acquire vacant or under-utilised Crown and private land that’s suitable for residential development to enable the construction of affordable, public, and market-priced homes.
To support a step-change in housing development in New Zealand, the Government has also:
- Allocated $3.8 billion of investment for critical housing infrastructure like pipes and roads to, through the Housing Acceleration Fund and the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund
- passed an amendment to the Resource Management Act to enable more three storey residential building to be built in tier 1 authorities
- Allocated $730 million of investment in Māori housing
- Provided support for first home buyers, through KiwiBuild, access to First Home grants and loans and our Progressive Home Ownership schemes
- Invested in rebuilding the public housing sector, including the construction of 10,600 additional homes and counting, as well as over 4,000 transitional homes
- Provided an interest limitation rule exemption for the build-to-rent sector to assist the delivery of more quality, long-term rental supply
- Progressed the repeal and reform of the Resource Management Act to reduce the timeframes and expense of the consenting process and enable more housing developments to get going
- Created the National Policy Statement – Urban Development to ensure that New Zealand’s towns and cities are well-functioning and requiring councils to plan appropriately for growth.
