Bennett eyes pop-up houses

Housing development at Hobsonville Point, Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell.

South Auckland sites may take 150 prefabs.

A "pop-up" housing park of 100 or so prefabs for temporary use could be established in South Auckland by next autumn, says Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett.

It would house present state tenants whose property was being redeveloped and others in urgent need of housing.

She told the Herald on Sunday she was thinking of about 100-150 houses for the first and she had identified three sites in South Auckland that could take that number.

But "temporary" housing has yet to be defined and she was looking at several options.

"Some of the modular housing is just outstanding - for like 20 years," she said.

The Government has been under pressure on housing. Te Puea Marae in Mangere has been shelter for more than 50 people and last month hundreds slept the night in cars as a protest in support of homeless families.

Prime Minister John Key used the term pop-ups to describe the housing proposal when he appeared on The Nation yesterday.

Such pop-ups could be built on land that was ear-marked for future schools or transport.

The state could either own or lease the housing for emergency housing and those needed to be rehoused during Housing New Zealand rebuilds.

The barrier at present was settling Auckland Council's density rules.

Everything was on hold until the Unitary Plan went through next month.

"To make it fiscally attractive, you'd need to know how many you could put on a site, at what density levels and it hasn't gone through Cabinet yet."

A similar approach was taken in Christchurch in the aftermath of its earthquakes.

Housing New Zealand could manage the contracts but private developers would provide the modular housing.

"We are highly likely to get a preferred supplier list so when things do line up, we are ready to go."

She said Housing New Zealand had thousands of houses in the pipeline over the next five years.

Meanwhile, Christchurch-based minister Gerry Brownlee said he had talked to Christchurch Council about the prospect of an extra rate on unimproved land as a disincentive to land banking.

"I presume that question extends throughout the rest of New Zealand as well.

"It means that if you want to land bank in an area where there is a designation for some other purpose then you are going to pay a much more significant rate than you would if that land had been developed."

The council was looking at that at present.