Govt orders sale of ‘thousands’ of surplus houses

Press, 27 February 1984, Page 2

Govt orders sale of ‘thousands’ of surplus houses

PA Wellington The Cabinet has ordered the urgent sale of thousands of surplus Government houses throughout New Zealand in a move expected to return about $lOO million to Treasury coffers. Government departments have been told they have until the end of next month to provide lists of all surplus properties to the Lands and Survey Department, which will handle the sales. The directive came from the Cabinet early in December and was confirmed on Friday by the Lands and Survey Department after growing criticism from National members of Parliament that while their constituents were in urgent need of housing, many departmental homes were lying empty. Many houses to be sold off are owned by the Ministry of Works, taken under compulsory purchase orders for projects long since abandoned. Others are former staff houses for people such as local policemen or district nurses whose jobs have been phased out over the years but the houses retained.

Some houses are let at peppercorn rents to departmental staff and there have already been discussions with the Public Service Association about the tenants’ rights. The Lands and Survey Department’s land administration director, Mr lan Campbell, said that the Cabinet’s decision followed

a package presented by a Treasury commission and was the culmination of a growing awareness by Ministers of public criticism of the numbers of departmental houses lying empty. “I think the Government was getting fairly agitated in the end, there had been a spate of fires in empty department houses in Wellington and in other areas which had been brought to the notice of the Ministers by their constituents,” Mr Campbell said.

“This is a whole new ball game designed to speed up the disposals ... to put the houses back into private hands.”

Mr Campbell said the Ministry of Works and Development alone would have at least 2000 houses to dispose of throughout New Zealand. Other departments would provide many more. Not all the surplus houses will be sold on the open market. The former owners have the right to buy back their old homes and Mr Campbell expected that some would.

Mr Campbell believed it would take about two years to dispose of them all. “We can’t dump all this property on the market at once. We don’t want to upset property values, and we would if we did that,” he said.

“We will work a drip-feed system so we can get the best return for the taxpayer.

“Like any prudent seller, we will be guided by the experts on how much we

can sell at once without flooding the market.”

The Director-General of lands, Mr Bing Lucas, said yesterday that the Cabinet had offered to have departments credited with surplus house sales as an incentive to return more homes to private owners. “It is part of the tit-for-tat system, which the Government is demanding from its departments ... they are required to nominate compensatory savings or increased revenue for any new projects, and the earnings generated by sales of surplus property will be part of that,” Mr Lucas said. “There is no doubt that Cabinet wanted urgent action — the fact that various departments were given a guideline of 110 days in which to complete their lists was intended to give a sense of urgency,” he said.