Construction of the first KiwiBuild homes is due to be completed next month - and the Government expects people will be moving into them by October.
The new homes are being constructed in the Papakura-Takanini area, in South Auckland. They are the first tranche of the 100,000 affordable high-quality homes that the Government has pledged to build over the next decade.
The homes are being built on the McLennan estate, 24ha of ex-Defence Force land owed by Housing NZ Corporation, about 30km from Auckland's CBD.
"Eighteen of these homes are expected to be completed by the end of August 2018, with the remainder completed by the end of the year," according to information from Housing NZ Corporation.
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The houses under construction are a mixture of two-bedroom homes (selling for for $499,000), three-bedroom homes ($579,000) and four-bedroom homes ($649,000).
The homes are nearly 30km from Auckland's CBD and critics say the HNZC scheme started well before last year's election and that Twyford was taking credit for a project hatched under National's time in power, using a handful of state homes as KiwiBuild to get an early result.
Housing Minister Phil Twyford said: "We will have families moving in in October.
"We are delivering 30 KiwiBuild homes at McLennan for $579,000," he said, referring to three-bedroom properties.
The KiwiBuild homes are on Liberation Rd and Regiment Rd, a spokesperson for Twyford said today. The site is accessed via the Southern Motorway turnoff onto Great South Rd at Takanini, then off Walters Rd and onto Battalion Dr.
To be eligible to enter the ballot to buy an affordable, high-quality KiwiBuild home, households must earn no more than $180,000, individuals no more than $120,000. You must be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident and intend to own and live in the house for the first three years.
Who has bought the first KiwiBuild homes is as yet unknown as no details have been released.
Housing New Zealand has provided the infrastructure for the McLennan project, the development's web site says, working with Studio Pacific Architecture and others.
After McLennan, KiwiBuild homes are due to rise on a site of around 30ha at Carrington's Unitec site, Point Chevalier beside the Waitemata District Health Board's Mason Clinic.
Twyford said that good progress had been made on Kiwibuild.
After KiwiBuild registrations opened yesterday, more than 5000 were received. As of 12.25pm yesterday, more than 17,000 registrations of interest had been received.
