Why sell 109 desperately needed houses? Don’t let Chris Bishop anywhere near Auckland!
Firstly, WHY are we selling 109 houses when we desperately need them?
A group of 109 never-lived-in new homes in Auckland and Wellington are for sale from the Crown, which was contracted to buy them from private developers, who failed to sell their stock in a tough market.
The housing schemes all have an underwrite via KiwiBuild because previous Governments backed new schemes to boost supply by agreeing to bail developers out if they couldn’t sell.
Secondly, WHY are we allowing Chris Bishop anywhere near Auckland?
Chris Bishop reveals his ‘urbanist’ vision for Auckland’s future
The Transport Minister has laid out a vision for boosting Auckland’s urban density in a speech to a business group.
Speaking to the Committee for Auckland today, the newly-minted Transport Minister Chris Bishop started his speech by stating he made “no apologies for being what is sometimes called an urbanist”.
His ideas for the city included reigning in congestion — with a Time of Use charging bill expected to get to select committee by the end of March — removing level crossings, encouraging transit-orientated development, and taking a “fresh look” at the city’s viewshafts.
He’s less ‘Urbanist’ and more ‘Brutalist’.
He wants high rise ghettos while privatising access to the city.
He has already damaged Public Housing…
Opposition criticises Kāinga Ora ‘turnaround’ plan
Labour and the Greens have rubbished the government’s turnaround plan for Kāinga Ora, saying it will only make more people homeless.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop revealed Kāinga Ora’s turnaround plan on Tuesday, saying the total number of social houses would not reduce – but the number of homes held by the government’s housing agency would remain stable from 2026 at about 78,000.
Sales and demolitions would be offset by new builds and retrofits, Kāinga Ora’s scope would be reduced, and construction costs would be brought down to equal or less than market rates.
Labour’s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said the government’s shake-up of the agency would only leave more people living on the street.
“I think Chris Bishop’s full of it … it’s all PR and it’s all about saving money, rather than housing people,” he said.
“We’ve seen a record number of houses built under the previous government, and the best that this lot can come up with is to keeping numbers the same … all the while the need continues to grow, all while the population continues to grow, and at the same point consents across the country for new builds has dropped yet again. It doesn’t add up.”
He said the government was only focused on cutting costs, but Labour had been increasingly hearing from people in need unable to access emergency housing.
“Every day we’re getting examples of people living in tents and living in their cars or living on the street because this government is stopping people coming into emergency housing. Then they’re using those figures to say that the need has reduced … it’s absolute bull, and it doesn’t add up, and it’s going to result in more people living on the street just because they don’t want to spend money.
“That is on the minister, he’s made a choice here.”
He argued Kāinga Ora’s construction costs – which the government had said was 12 percent above market rate – was because of accessibility requirements.
“Seventy percent of the people in Kāinga Ora homes have a disability, so building these homes for these people is not the average residential dwelling that the private sector would build … they have wider doorways, they have special aspects to them that cost money.
“It’s interesting, isn’t it, that when they talk about things like emergency housing … when they talk about building social housing, they talk about the cost – not once did they talk about the people that need these homes.”
This nonsense that Bishop is suggesting as a ‘turnaround’ is based on the report he got Bill English to do over a text message using $500 000 set aside for emergency housing…
Selling off public housing in nice suburbs to pay for shitty housing in poor suburbs isn’t a public housing solution, it’s a joke.
He’s making Public Housing homeless!
Bernard Hickey is scathing…
Govt to sell billions of dollars worth of state housing land
Bishop stripping Kāinga Ora back to being landlord of stagnant stock of 78,000 state homes; Govt to sell around 900 homes per year in leafier areas to fund renewals & eyes sale of bare land blocks
-
- Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announced Kāinga Ora would be stripped of its ‘non-core’ activities of developing new land, managing First Home loans and KiwiSaver withdrawals and consenting its own projects;
- Bishop detailed plans to add a net 145 new homes this year before capping the state housing stock at 78,000 for the next 30 years, with renewal and renovations of an already-tired housing stock paid for by land and home sales in leafier suburbs;
- He said around 800 state homes on land in suburbs such as Remuera would be sold to deveopers in the current year, with ongoing sales in the years to come of around 900, with the potential to also sell bare land bought previously for redevelopment;
- The combined proceeds from land sales would amount to billions per year and would allow Kāinga Ora to generate ‘sustained cash surpluses’ from the 2027/28 fiscal year, which would allow borrowing to stop and dividend payments to resume;
- Cabinet decided to cut around 1,000 jobs from Kāinga Ora to save $1.4 billion over four years, including by demolishing surplus homes rather than transporting them to iwi, cutting maintenance spending by $50 million a year and reducing the size and quality of new homes away from the Homestar Six rating; and,
- Stats NZ reported yesterday building consents fell 9.8% to 33,600 in calendar 2024 after the Government suspended Kāinga Ora’s new building work and high interest rates quashed private sector demand, leading to collapses of building firms and the loss of 13,000 jobs in construction last year.
We are witnessing a class war but don’t have the political vocabulary to describe it in a country blinded by its egalitarian pretensions.
Bishop has a track record of saying one thing and then being unable to back it up.
He claimed a renters rights group loved his plan to allow Landlords to throw you out onto the street but then refused to give anyone the name of that organisation.
He claimed he understood the pain of renters because he was a renter, when asked if he was renting from family, he said no, only for it to turn out he was renting it from his in-laws and he didn’t consider them technically ‘family’.
He has this habit of lying to deflect criticism even when the lies can be easily discovered.
By attacking Kianga Ora, he is manufacturing a housing crisis for the benefit of landlords!
National don’t have money for new Public Housing but they do have $3b for landlords!
Don’t let Chris Bishop anywhere near Auckland!
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
Like your pics. I don’t dare to read about this kindergarten kid from the school of hard rocks!
I have seen a report that our council is going to set up a joint venture with as yet unnamed social housing providers.
To get this going the current stock will be sold to said unnamed provider at a yet to be decided discount off current capital value.
My guess is that someone like the Wright Foundation is involved.
WHY are we selling 109 houses ?
Because HNZ can build at least 200 more houses with the proceeds of the sale.
Why? Because stupid is what stupid does and Nationals CoC is stupid.
The chickens are on their way home to roost and all the droppings will see a very messy end to this CoC, the worst abysmal excuse for a govt in the history of this country.
I have noticed a lot of misspelling in comments. Chris Bishop belongs to a cult. A cult has be led into a false view of reality and is immune to correction.
Why does a social housing organisation need to pay a dividend to the government .English started this shit when he was the minister and expected them to pay 100 million per year .That money would have been better invested in new stock or retro fitting existing stock .Why is the public service judged by how much money it can make as a dividend for the government .How many other organizations with in the public service are expected to generate a dividend so willis can then foward it on to the landlords .