Over the weekend, an open house was held for three state
houses in Ellerslie which are up for sale, with tenders
closing 10 April 2025. This is a part of Minister Chris
Bishop’s plan to sell state housing in wealthier areas to
pay for renewal of the stock. Ōrākei and
Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board areas that surround the
houses have combined waitlists of over 500
households.
The
real estate advert is directed towards land bankers and
property investors. The three state houses, which previously
housed families, were empty to make way for 8 new state
houses before the Government stalled and cancelled hundreds
of Kāinga Ora projects.
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“Privatisation
of state housing land is a bad idea. If we want to live in
communities where everyone has a place to call home, we need
to build state housing in every community. Selling off land
to investors and landbankers will only deepen the housing
crisis by reducing the land that could be used to build more
state housing,” says Vanessa Cole, spokesperson for Public
Housing Futures.
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“It’s clear this is a part of a
much larger process of cancelling projects that were going
to build more state housing and selling the land to
developers and investors.
“People in our communities
are struggling to afford their rent right now, and others
are being forced out of their communities and into cars,
garages and parks. This is not the time to be selling state
housing land and halting plans to build more state
houses,” says Cole
Chris Bishop announced the
Kāinga Ora ‘turn-around’ plan last month which involved
plans to sell around 800 state houses a year, demolish 700,
to pay for the renewal of 1500 homes – effectively a net
zero increase in state housing from 2026 for the next 30
years. As part of this plan, Bishop said the Government
would sell state housing in wealthier
suburbs.
“Ellerslie, where these state
houses and land are being sold off, and its surrounding area
have over 500 households waiting for stable housing. We need
to retain and expand state housing in every suburb, town and
city, whether wealthy or not, because there is a need
everywhere,” says Cole
“Selling
publicly-owned land means that more and more land in our
communities goes into the private market where property
speculators and investors push up the rents and the cost of
housing. State housing is a counter-force to this –
providing stable and suitable housing where people can put
down roots and age in place,” says Cole.
“Many of
these now wealthy suburbs were once working class
communities that were gentrified. State housing kept people
in their communities, when the market pushed others
out.
“Both Labour and National’s solutions for
paying for state housing renewals have been to sell
publicly-owned land to developers and investors. Privatising
land that could be used to build more state housing in the
future is bad decision making. It can lead to gentrification
in the cases of lower-income communities, and the loss of
any remaining truly affordable housing in wealthier
communities,” says
Cole.
