More state housing for Tauranga

More state housing is on the cards for Tauranga, as the Government announces changes to the social housing demand.

Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett released the Ministry of Social Development's intentions for Tauranga today.

The ministry's purchasing intentions for Tauranga district were:

•purchase slightly more one-bedroom places (an estimated 40) - some of these could be two-bedroom places where the cost is similar and supply is more readily available
•purchase slightly more two-bedroom places (an estimated 20)
•maintain current levels of purchasing of three-bedroom places
•purchase slightly more four-bedroom and larger places (an estimated 10).

Tauranga currently has 139 applicants on the register in March 2015, 101 are on the housing register and 38 are on the transfer register), making up around three percent of the total register. There were also 1223 occupied social houses in Tauranga district as of March 2014). Demand for one-bedroom and four-bedroom places may not be addressed efficiently through tenant exits.

In a statement, the Ministry of Social development said it had also taken into account the Tauranga district was an area of higher projected growth in the number of households compared to the national average, with a projected household growth rate of 1.8 percent (Statistics New Zealand, 2010).

Research has identified that the rapidly growing population in the Bay of Plenty area will result in reduced housing affordability into the future, and that the ageing population will increase the existing undersupply of one and two-bedroom social houses (Capital Strategy/SGS Economics and Planning, 2007), it stated.

Ms Bennett said the purchasing intentions information release was the first of its kind, and marked a milestone in the Government's Social Housing Reform Programme.

"It responds to requests from the sector for more information from MSD about where it will look to purchase tenancies, and what vulnerable New Zealanders on the social housing register require to suit their family's needs," she said.