KEY POINTS:
National has accused the Government of letting 145 state tenants live in $1 million-plus grandeur while 11,000 others wait and "ordinary hard-working New Zealanders" struggle to save for their own homes.
The National Party's housing spokesman, Phil Heatley, yesterday revealed Quotable Value documents showing that at least 145 state houses were now worth more than $1 million each.
The number of $1 million-plus state houses has risen from 124 in September 2005 and 145 last September.
Mr Heatley said keeping the properties could not be justified given Auckland's current housing shortage and a waiting list of more than 11,000 people for state homes.
"If each of those properties was sold, the Government could purchase state house accommodation for three times that number of struggling families, even at Auckland prices."
Housing Minister Chris Carter said the value of state housing had increased as property values everywhere grew and suburbs became more prestigious.
"Many of these houses were built when the suburbs they are located in were not as desirable as they are today. The value of them lies almost entirely in the land they sit on," Mr Carter said.
He introduced a policy last September under which it was assessed whether homes worth over $700,000 should be kept, sold or redeveloped with more homes on the land once the tenants currently living in them left.
In response to questions from Mr Heatley in Parliament, Mr Carter said some of the properties in question might already have been sold as the figures were from last September.
A spokesman for Mr Carter said all the 145 houses now worth over $1 million would fall under the policy, which comes into effect when the homes become vacant.
Housing NZ would not reveal the addresses, which Mr Heatley said were likely to be in the Orakei area, particularly on Takitimu St which backs on to Bastion Pt.
Nearby Kupe St and Ngake St also had high-value state houses, he said.
Mr Heatley said three of the Orakei houses were valued at almost $5 million combined: $2 million, $1.43 million and $1.4 million
He said it was ridiculous for so much state housing capital to be tied up in so few places when it could be reinvested.
Minister Carter said four of the homes had already been earmarked for possible sale, with a collective worth of about $5 million.
He said it was too simplistic to just sell off the properties, some of which could be good to build more houses on.
There was also the social question involved of stripping some suburbs of state housing completely.
The minister said there were only a few remaining state houses in some of the suburbs - which were once traditional state housing territory - because many others were sold off in the 1990s.
Our state stock
* Housing NZ has 66,000 properties nationally.
* These are valued at more than $10 billion.
* The most exclusive houses are in Auckland's Orakei.
* These are said to be in Takitimu, Kupe and Ngake Sts.
* This hilltop area is between Remuera and Mission Bay.
