New houses are being built — Minister

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 11

New houses are being built — Minister

Parliamentary reporter The latest building figures showing the number of new homes being built fully justifies the Government’s housing policies, according to the Minister of Housing (Mr Quigley). Commenting on the Statistics Department's release of estimated new dwelling permits for December, 1981, which shows an increase of 51.8 per cent over December, 1980, Mr Quigley said the figures showed that people were certainly not in the position of being unable to build, as the Opposition had asserted. "Throughout last year there has been a steady rise in the number of permits being issued for building new homes,” he said. In contrast with the March. 1981, increase of only 1.2 per cent (totalling 1386 new dwellings), April was up by 12.6 per cent, May by 9.1 per cent, and June by 32.8 per cent. The remaining months of the year were all well up on the comparable figures for 1980, culminating with an increase jn December of 51.8 per cent to 1899 permits. “The increased demand is largely coming from people who are in a position to ‘trade-up.’ which means that their former homes are available for those firsthome seekers wishing to buy an existing home,” Mr Quigley said. “The Government’s decision to allow first-home seekers a wider choice between buying and building is work-

ing to the advantage of this group of potential purchasers and has also encouraged more quality new homes to be built. “About 16,000 dwelling units should be completed by the end of this financial year,” he said. ’ But the member of Parliament for Papanui, Mr M. K. Moore, said that thousands of State tenants faced the threat of either having to buy their State house or being evicted under a National Party pledge soon , to be enforced. National had promised in its 1975 Election manifesto that all future allocations of State houses would be limited to <a six-year maximum. A tenant's failure to buy a State house at the end of this period would result in eviction on 12 months notice, or in placing the tenancy on a “normal market rental” rate, now around $lOO for a three bedroom house, he said. “National’s policy, officially announced in March, 1976, to apply from October of that year, will soon come into full effect. “The time for clarification is surely now. Does it still apply? Does Mr Quigley recognise that the difference between 1975 and today is that there was no housing crisis when National took office but now we face chronic housing shortages?” Mr Moore said the policy was designed to appeal to the minority of New Zealanders who were prejudiced against State house tenants.