Northcote development to boost housing supply

The Government will redevelop 300 existing Housing New Zealand (HNZ) properties into about 1200 new homes in Northcote, Ministers Bill English and Dr Nick Smith have announced.

The Minister Responsible for Housing New Zealand, Bill English, says the $750 million project will transform the existing 300 properties into about 1200 warmer, drier and healthier homes with a better mix of size and type.

“The number of HNZ homes will increase from 300 to 400 and a further 600-800 properties will be sold as a mix of affordable and market housing.”

The development is being delivered by the Hobsonville Land Company (HLC) which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HNZ.

“Northcote is the latest example of the Government’s work to develop its own land to accelerate the supply of new houses into the Auckland market,” Mr English says.

The first stage, which is already underway, will replace 20 old HNZ homes with 59 new social housing homes when complete.

The second stage of the five-year project will begin next year and will provide around 200 new homes. Thirty-eight HNZ homes will make way for 60 new social housing units and about 140 new homes for market supply, with an emphasis on affordability.

The first homes will be completed in June 2017 and the entire redevelopment is expected to be completed by 2021.

“This is a significant large-scale urban development project for Auckland, which will integrate with work to revitalise the Northcote town centre,” Mr English says.

“It complements the range of initiatives we are taking across the city and across many functions of government to improve supply, which is at the heart of improving affordability.”

Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith has welcomed the new development and the involvement of HLC.

“This development is another significant step in our programme in Auckland which improves overall housing supply, better utilises land and provides for mixed communities of social, affordable and market housing.

“HLC has proven it has the capacity and expertise to deliver large-scale housing at Hobsonville and has built up trusted commercial partners to deliver good-quality, affordable homes,” Dr Smith says.

“This significant scale development is consistent with our broader plan for addressing Auckland’s housing supply and affordability challenges. It increases overall supply by 600-800 homes.

“It improves the quality of housing by replacing older state homes with warmer, drier and healthier homes and has a better mix of size to match today’s needs. It supports the goal of more intensive housing in areas close to public transport and town centres. This development also supports our social objective of moving from areas of all state housing to communities which include a mix of social, affordable and open market housing.

“This redevelopment illustrates the importance of Auckland’s new Unitary Plan and will allow for a significant upscale in the number of houses that can be built on government-owned land.

“The old plans only enabled HNZ to increase its housing stock from about 28,000 to 31,000. The new plan enables approximately 60,000 homes on the equivalent land area Auckland-wide. Today’s announcement is the first of a number of large scale HNZ projects which will now be possible under the new rules.”

HLC has committed to ongoing engagement with local Iwi to understand and respond to their interests in the land at Northcote.