Almost 70 KiwiBuild homes will be built in the New Plymouth suburb of Marfell, Housing Minister Phil Twyford has announced.
The homes in the development would cost less than $400,000 each and would have a maximum price of $450,000.
This means the mortgage repayments for houses in this price range would be the same as the average rent for a three-bedroom home in New Plymouth, Twyford said.
The 68 KiwiBuild homes are expected to be completed midway through next year and would all have a Homestar six rating.
Construction is expected to start in early 2019.
“This new community on Banks Street and Discovery Place is a fantastic opportunity for first-home buyers who have been locked out of the market to get a very affordable home,” Twyford said today.
“It will rejuvenate an area that had been left with vacant lots and run-down houses.”
The miniser said 1400 people had registered their interest in buying their first home in New Plymouth and thanked the district council for its support of this development and helping with the planning process.
In 2008, Housing NZ proposed a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the Marfell area, but those plans were scrapped in 2014.
Two years later, Housing NZ said there were roughly 30 homes sitting vacant in the suburb, after issues with financing.
As of last week, there have been 388 pre-qualified KiwiBuild application processes completed nationwide. A KiwiBuild spokesman last week said 6600 people have started the process.
“We tell people that they only need to complete pre-qualification when they have found a KiwiBuild home they want to buy and are ready to enter a ballot.”
To pre-qualify, a person must provide proof of income, citizenship or residency and bank finance, as well as signing a statutory declaration, the spokesman said.
To qualify for a KiwiBuild house, the buyer must have an income of less than $120,000 for a single buyer, or no more than $180,000 for more than one purchaser.
They need to be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident, or a resident visa holder who was an “ordinarily resident in New Zealand” and intend to own and live in the home as their primary place of residence for at least three years.
