Housing plan designed to tackle 'entrenched social problems'

A plan to redevelop large state-housing areas and spare Crown land in Auckland with a mix of state houses, affordable homes for first-home buyers and even some luxury properties will be unveiled today by Housing Minister Chris Carter.

The socially troubled suburbs of Tamaki, Mangere and Otara, and the Hobsonville air base and Papakura, are earmarked for the plan.

In speech notes for the Real Estate Institute's conference at Sky City, Mr Carter said the plan would tackle the problem of housing affordability in Auckland and reduce the concentration of state housing in troubled areas.

In Tamaki suburbs such as Glen Innes and Pt England, Housing New Zealand owned half of the 5000 properties. Proposed new planning rules could create 3000 new homes on Housing NZ land.

"These 3000 new homes could comprise 600 additional state homes, 500 homes for first-home buyers, 500 affordable homes for modest-income families, 400 homes for the charitable and community sector and 1000 homes on the open market," Mr Carter said.

At Hobsonville, the 3000 new homes planned on 111ha of Crown land could comprise luxury and middle-market housing with 15 per cent state housing and 15 per cent affordable housing. A similar development could take place in Papakura.

Mr Carter said "entrenched social problems" in Tamaki, Mangere and Otara could be eliminated by changing the make up of these communities and renewing their environments.

"Because many of the state properties in these areas consist of small houses on big sections, it is technically possible to completely redevelop the area."