Derelict Hamilton East housing estate to get a $7m makeover

Shirley Butler was the last resident in Jebson Plc.

A Hamilton East housing estate full of rotting, vacant houses is set to get a $7m makeover with 71 new homes planned for the site.

The Jebson Place site was last month described as being akin to a ghetto - most of the residents had over the past three years moved out and the properties boarded up and left to rot.

The last of the residents, Shirley Butler 76, and her cat Rascal left the Housing New Zealand owned property last month.

Today, Social Housing Minister Amy Adams has revealed the finer details of the Government's plans for the land, which would see the first of 71 new houses completed in 2019.

She said work was to begin on the land later this year and once complete would see 26 new social houses built.

"The majority of these new social housing homes will be one- and two-bedroom houses. These are exactly the kind of homes needed to respond to Hamilton's social housing demand, which is mostly from smaller families and adults without children."

Adams said these houses would add to another 43 being built as part of Housing New Zealand's Hamilton programme.

The minister said the rest of the land would be developed by Waikato-Tainui into 45 houses for its tribal members and the open market.

"Close collaboration between Government and iwi means we can get the best outcome for the Hamilton community."