Call for more co-op housing

Press, 28 September 1988, Page 7

Call for more co-op housing

Wellington reporter The Government has called on local authorities to be less restrictive in their interpretation of district schemes and allow more development of cooperative housing. Local government should be challenged to loosen their district schemes and health and building regulations “to play their part in developing an alternative form of housing which has the potential ’to provide secure and affordable housing for many New Zealanders,” the Minister of Housing, Ms Clark, said yesterday. The Housing Corporation has allocated $9 million for co-operatives wanting to provide housing, she said.

The Government' had taken the initiative and now it was up to others to help co-operative housing reach its “full potential.” Private sector lending institutions should develop more innovative lending policies for co-operatives seeking housing finance, she said. Ms Clark said the corporation’s new lending policy would allow groups of three or more households to jointly seek a solution to their housing needs. The corporation’s interest rates to co-opera-tives would be calculated by averaging the gross incomes of the households involved and then charging an income-related interest rate.