For a small party Mana are not afraid to come up with big policy!
Mana Party announces big housing plan
The Mana Party wants to build 10,000 state houses a year. …
Its policy includes reinstating the Maori Affairs Housing Scheme which ended in 1989. The scheme would be updated and administered through a restructured Te Puni Kokiri, Mr Nikora said. Under the former scheme, 23,500 houses were built and 5000 existing houses bought.
The party called for land to be made available to Maori in the same way it was being made available to local government and bodies to ease the Auckland housing crisis, he said. Maori first-home buyers would be able to buy homes with no deposit, at the same interest rates that Government pays and with negotiable mortgage terms. …
Mana Party leader Hone Harawira said the party had done no costings on the policy but believed affordable houses could be built for $200,000 each.
The Maori-only scheme as first announced was quickly modified:
Mana’s housing policy ‘open to all NZers’
The Mana Party now says its policy to build 10,000 cheap houses a year would be for all New Zealanders, not just Maori. …
They would be paid for by the government and sold for $200,000 each, with no deposit and low interest rates.
The policy hasn’t been fully costed but party leader Hone Harawira says it would take $30 million to start it up – although at a cost of $200,000 that would build only 150 houses.
Mr Harawira says the houses would be sold to struggling Maori and Pakeha families. “Our intention is to try to target certain levels for Maori,” he said on Radio New Zealand on Friday. “The housing policy isn’t just for Maori, it’s for all New Zealanders.”
It’s ambitious. It leaves National’s inaction looking increasingly isolated and out of touch on housing. But there are too many gaps in this policy as currently stated. Needs work.
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