Six council-owned units on Invercargill’s Miller St were officially opened in early May. PHOTO: ICC

A new $2.8 million council-owned housing complex for elderly persons has been criticised by some Invercargill representatives for costing too much.

Opened in May, the Miller St project features six single-bedroom units with mobility-friendly bathrooms and garden beds.

But the cost of building the units caught the eye of councillor Lisa Tou-McNaughton, who took a jab at the spend during a recent meeting.

‘‘When we get to the building stage, how will we as a council ensure our procurement processes are fiscally robust so we are not building new units at $9200 a square metre, which we did at Miller St, which is twice the rate to build a high-spec unit in a retirement village?’’ she asked.

Ms Tou-McNaughton said that rate was ‘‘excessive’’, and was backed by councillor Andrea de Vries who deemed the cost ‘‘exorbitant’’ and asked if the council was cross-utilising its own expertise in areas such as landscaping.

In response, council manager Patricia Christie said a fiscal lens would be put over new development sites.

Ms Christie highlighted design as a key cost factor, and said all aspects of the Miller St project had gone through a procurement process.

Meanwhile, councillor Alex Crackett expressed concern that all ratepayers were funding elderly housing even though they were struggling too.

Rent covered operations but not depreciation, interest or debt, she said, and the ‘‘position of the entire portfolio just worsens each year’’.

The council revealed more than 50 people were still on its elderly housing waiting list at the time the Miller St complex opened, and several organisations presented information to council in May.

That included Presbyterian Support which said Invercargill housing stock was dominated by three-bedroom homes even though 55% of households were only one-to-two persons.

Building consents for retirement village units and apartments made up only a small proportion since 1990, it said.

The council decided last week to explore partnering with other organisations for the delivery of elderly person housing while simultaneously looking at three possible new sites.

It owns and manages 21 complexes across Invercargill and Bluff which comprise a total of 222 units.

The Miller St project replaced four units from the 1950s on the same site.

• LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.