Thursday, September 7, 2006

A state house, owned by Housing New Zealand, in Glen Innes, Auckland is worth NZ$2 million, the most expensive state house in New Zealand. There were also three other houses in Auckland worth more than 1.4 million.

Altogether there were 104 houses that were worth more than $700,000. Other high priced houses includes: A Lower Hutt house at $580,000, a Christchurch house at $690,000 and an Invercargill house at $520,000.

The high price of the $2 million house is mostly because of the land where it is situated.

Phil Heatley, National Member of Parliament and National’s housing spokesman, said: “The properties should be sold to find homes for more than 11,000 families on Housing NZ’s waiting list. In Auckland alone, the minister could trade the top four state houses, worth $6.3 million, and buy 16 state houses at average Auckland prices.”

Since 2002 Labour has either sold or disposed of 1,200 state houses, according to Heatley.

Chris Carter told Parliament yesterday: “The tenants of the $2 million home have been there for eight years. That speaks volumes about the urgency this Minister attaches to the growing waiting list.”

“National wants to see a tougher line taken with those who repeatedly vandalise HNZ properties and we want to put an end to the situation where households earning more than $100,000 continue to qualify for state homes,” Heatly said.