Budget 2015: Big plans for more homes

Bill English forecast a surplus in last year's Budget and will do so again this year. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Budget to detail project to free up Crown land for developers to build affordable houses.

Today's Budget will unveil details of Government plans to partner with private developers to build affordable houses on Crown-owned land in Auckland.

Housing and Building Minister Nick Smith will meet interested developers at an Auckland hotel next week.

The invitation to property developers from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) says the Government has identified 430ha of Crown land in areas zoned for residential housing in Auckland. Thousands of new homes could be built quickly.

"This is a unique opportunity to partner with the Government on a commercial basis to increase the supply of more affordable housing in the Auckland market at a pace," say the MBIE notes, obtained by 3News.

The aim was to increase the supply of affordable housing in Auckland quickly and in a way that minimised the development risk for the Crown and up-front costs to the developer.

Depending on the size of the sections and the intensity of the developments, the number of dwellings would be a minimum of 4500 and could be well over 10,000.

MBIE will run what it calls "an open contestable process" to come up with a shortlist of parties or consortia with the capability and capacity to deliver on the project.

The move will complement other moves in Auckland to increase supply through fast-tracking consents in Special Housing Areas in its accord with Auckland Council.

Stung by accusations that the Government was not doing enough to curb rocketing house prices, it also moved on Sunday to dampen demand by making any capital gain on property bought and sold within two years (except the family home) to be taxed as income from October.

Finance Minister Bill English has been trying to lower expectations of a major package to alleviate poverty, as had been signalled earlier by Social Development Minister Anne Tolley and Prime Minister John Key. He said there would be no new initiatives.

But there may be increases in funding for childcare relief for beneficiaries. It will be Mr English's seventh Budget and, like last year's, it will forecast a surplus.

For the coming 2015-16 year it will forecast a surplus of about $500 million and it will estimate the deficit of the current year at close to $600 million - a decline from the $372 surplus forecast last year.

Labour taunted Mr English in the House yesterday with cries of "nine-zero," referring to the nine Budgets in which it claimed Labour Finance Minister Michael Cullen delivered a surplus. Mr Key, however, reminded them while his 2008 Budget forecast a surplus of $1.3 billion, it had turned into a $3.9 billion deficit over the year.

Labour Finance spokesman Grant Robertson failed to draw out Mr English over Treasury advice given to him last year suggesting the 2015-16 surplus would not be possible without a lift in dairy prices.

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