The Opposition's Housing spokesperson has called for KiwiBuild to be scrapped after there was reportedly little interest in the first South Island housing project to be announced.
There are 10 KiwiBuild homes set to be built as part of the Northlake development near Lake Wanaka, with ballots having opened on October 8.
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While Housing Minister Phil Twyford said at the time the houses would help restore "the Kiwi dream of home ownership to thousands of families who have been priced out of the housing market in the Queenstown Lakes District," those families aren't showing much interest in the KiwiBuild homes, reports the Otago Daily Times (OTD).
The ballot was due to close on Thursday, but the developer has reportedly asked for that to be extended by 10 days, with only 20 ballot entries having been received.
''Some houses have received no entries and the developer has asked us to extend the ballot to Sunday, November 18, to allow for people who they are working with more time to work through their pre-qualification process," KiwiBuild's senior media adviser Mark Hanson told the OTD.
The 10 homes will include four two-bedroom and six three-bedroom modern homes, and will be priced from $565,000 to $650,000, which is the HomeStart and Welcome Home Load price caps for Queenstown Lakes District new builds.
More than 3000 people from the Queenstown district have apparently registered interest in the KiwiBuild scheme, but the OTD reports KiwiBuild didn't have a number of those eligible for the Northlake Ballot.
Opposition Housing spokesperson, Judith Collins, said the extension showed KiwiBuild was struggling.
She said this shows the Minister was just choosing developments already in the pipeline and sticking a KiwiBuild sticker on them to give the scheme credibility.
"The Minister was more enamoured with announcing a KiwiBuild development in the South Island than checking whether demand existed for properties with two or three-bedrooms in Wanaka at the price point he has set," she said.
"KiwiBuild is clearly a fiasco, it's not delivering the types of homes first-home buyers want and they're too expensive for the low to middle income families the Minister originally claimed it would help".
Mr Twyford's office told Newshub the issue was an operational matter.
Newshub.
