House Prices

Shearer: No $300k houses in Auckland

Labour leader David Shearer has tempered his plans for a large-scale affordable housing scheme.

Monday, January 28th 2013

The party had said it would build 100,000 homes that would sell for $300,000 to low-income families through its KiwiBuild scheme.

Shearer said at the weekend that was a national average.

Standalone houses in Auckland would sell for more like $550,000.

He said apartments and terraced homes in cheaper Auckland suburbs could be sold for $300,000.

The plan had come in for criticism from many commentators who said it was too ambitious.

Property Council chief executive Connal Townsend told landlords.co.nz in November that more detail was needed on how Labour would achieve the $300,000 sale prices it had been talking about.

He said medium-rise apartments generally cost about $6500 a square metre to build.

Comments

On Tuesday, January 29th 2013 1:43 pm Lee Kammerer said:

This so called housing policy is nothing short of a vote grabbing sham. If Labour and the Greens are really committed to bringing the cost of housing down why, don't they support the government's changes to the resource management act? I simply don't see how they can build 100,000 homes in ten years for $300,000 with the RMA the way it is currently.

Most Read

Unity First Home Buyer special 4.15
SBS FirstHome Combo 4.29
ICBC 4.49
Kainga Ora 4.59
TSB Special 4.69
SBS Bank Special 4.69
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 4.74
AIA - Go Home Loans 4.75
Kiwibank Special 4.75
Unity Special 4.80
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 4.84
Kainga Ora 4.95
China Construction Bank 4.95
ICBC 4.99
Kiwibank Special 5.19
AIA - Go Home Loans 5.25
TSB Special 5.25
Unity Special 5.29
SBS Bank Special 5.29
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 5.29
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.39
ASB Bank 5.45
Westpac Special 5.49
SBS Bank Special 5.49
BNZ - Std 5.49
AIA - Go Home Loans 5.59
ASB Bank 5.59
ICBC 5.65
Kiwibank Special 5.69
Kainga Ora 5.69
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 5.89
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.99
TSB Special 5.99
SBS FirstHome Combo 3.29
AIA - Back My Build 3.34
SBS Construction lending for FHB 3.74
CFML 321 Loans 4.20
Co-operative Bank - Standard 5.34
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.34
ICBC 5.39
Kiwibank Special 5.75
Kainga Ora 5.79
TSB Special 5.79
Heartland Bank - Online 5.80

More Stories

Can the NZ economy grow while house prices stagnate?

Thursday, July 09th 2026

Can the NZ economy grow while house prices stagnate?

The question of whether the New Zealand economy can grow much without a recovery in the housing market remains a live issue.

Thursday, February 19th 2026

RBNZ expects slower house price growth in the current recovery

The Reserve Bank thinks house prices will rise at a much slower pace during the current recovery than they have in past cycles.

Wednesday, January 07th 2026

Queenstown not off the radar for first home buyers

First home buyers are not being deterred by Queenstown’s soaring house prices.

Record levels of first home buyers taking out low deposit loans

Tuesday, December 23rd 2025

Record levels of first home buyers taking out low deposit loans

About half of all first home buyer lending has been done at a less than 20% deposit in recent months.