Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Government could build $350,000 apartments for first home buyers.
Documents released to Newshub Nation this week under the Official Information Act reveal KiwiBuild apartments and houses to be priced up to $600,000 in Auckland could still be well out of reach of their target market.
Appearing on The AM Show on Tuesday, Ms Ardern acknowledged that the cost of KiwiBuild's stand-alone homes were a "stretch" for many people.
"We've got to start looking at alternatives to the stand-alone home that actually - because of land - does push up the price," she says.
"We're not just talking about stand-alone homes but those that are townhouses, so semi-detached, and apartments we're able to get at a much more affordable price-bracket.
"There are plenty of first-home buyers who see that as perfectly suitable alternative for them in a growing city environment."
Ms Ardern says she's looking at cheaper alternatives which would drastically cut the cost of a home.
"We've looked around the $350 [thousand]-plus, going up to around the $600 [thousand]-mark," she says.
When asked about the size of these cheaper places, Ms Ardern said some state housing built in the 1960s was 70-square-metres and whole families lived in them.
"If you have quality design and you've got quality green space around them they are perfectly liveable," she says.
Newshub.
