Home Truths

The Government’s $2 billion KiwiBuild scheme aims to provide 100,000 homes over the next decade. But can it deliver? Some in the construction sector regard the target as hopelessly over-ambitious.

- Nikki Mandow

Once upon a time, in a land not far away, there lived a happy young couple. They had good jobs and a beautiful baby, and they had bought a little house. After paying the mortgage each month, they still had enough money to bring up their growing family.

When the baby grew up, she wanted to buy a house, too, but there weren’t many to buy, and they were far too expensive for her. Most of her friends were in the same situation; some didn’t have a house to live in at all, so they had to go and live in caves in the woods. Everyone was very worried.

Then, one day, there was a new queen of this not-so-far-away land. She called together her wisest advisers, who came up with a plan (called KiwiBuild) to spend $2 billion of the country’s money to build 100,000 “affordable” homes over 10 years. (The word “affordable” didn’t really mean they would be affordable, but just less unaffordable than the 60,000 other homes that also needed to be built.)

Other people in the land – let’s call it New Zealand – are worried. Experts in the construction and related sectors wonder if the existing problems aren’t too hard for a short- or medium-term fix, and whether the queen (let’s call her Jacinda Ardern) and her two loyal advisers (Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford and Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa) can really hit the target of 100,000 warm, dry, affordable houses in that time.

In the best fairy tales, the hero must pass a series of challenges – usually to win the fair princess rather than improve housing affordability. But in the same spirit, here are seven major tests the country’s leaders must overcome if we are to have any chance of beating the housing crisis.

TEST 1 LEADERSHIP VACUUM