Nine new apartments in Auckland's Meadowbank were built at a cost of $11 million, and are currently untenanted. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Nine new apartments in Auckland's Meadowbank were built at a cost of $11 million, and are currently untenanted. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Nine Kāinga Ora apartments in Meadowbank that cost $1.2 million each, have been vacant since October.
Kāinga Ora says it is moving as fast as possible to fill them, after waiting for the final building approvals.
Last week it began the ‘placement process’ of offering apartments to tenants, after earlier saying this had started last October.
Nine Kāinga Ora apartments that cost $1.2 million each to build have sat vacant since being opened to the public to view last October.
Neighbours say they’re surprised at how long it’s taken to put tenants into the complex, while Kāinga Ora says it’s been moving as fast as possible and has been waiting on final building approvals.
The agency earlier drew criticism for spending $11m to build the three, three-bedroom and six two-bedroom apartments in Auckland’s Meadowbank suburb.
The spend equated to $1.2m for each apartment, or $1.7m if the estimated $4m value of the land already owned by Kāinga Ora was included.
The Government responded by saying it expected the state-run agency to achieve “better value for money” on future builds, while a leading developer called Kāinga Ora’s record of running up billions of dollars in debt a “scandal”.
A neighbour living near the complex said with all the attention the apartments had attracted, she was surprised they had still not been filled “four months after completion”.
“I find this extraordinary given the demand for KO housing.”
Tenants are expected to move into the Meadowbank apartments within weeks, Kāinga Ora said in October. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
As of November, more than 25,000 families and individuals were on the wait list for a state house or to be moved into a new one.
However, Kāinga Ora said the Meadowbank apartments had not officially been completed when the public was allowed to view one of them last October.
“We provided members of the community and neighbours with an opportunity to see inside a completed unit,” John Tubberty, the agency’s director for Central and East Auckland, said.
“This was not an official opening, rather an opportunity to see inside a completed unit while the remainder of the development was undergoing finishing work for final completion.”
Auckland Council only granted the apartments their final Code Compliance Certificates in mid-December, he said.
The apartment kitchens have stainless steel benchtops.
“Our customer teams then completed additional checks to ensure the units are ready for tenants to move in.”
Last week the agency began “the placement of applicants” looking to live in the apartments.
“Five applicants are in the process of being offered units in this nine-unit development,” Tubberty said.
“This was the earliest possible date following the standard tenancy movement shutdown period through the holiday season.”
Tubberty’s comments contradicted a Kāinga Ora spokeswoman’s response in October.
Back then, she said the agency had already “begun the placement process and expect the homes to be tenanted in the next couple of weeks”.
Mark Todd, co-founder of developer Ockham Residential, had earlier been among Kāinga Ora’s biggest critics after the Herald revealed the cost of the apartments last October.
He believed the project’s cost-per-apartment highlighted the agency’s “incompetence and lack of expertise” and called reports it racked up $12 billion in debt in five years a scandal.
“Kāinga Ora’s billions of dollars of expenditure in its five-year existence is a national embarrassment with what it costs to deliver each home.”
The ground-floor apartments have accessible bathrooms. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
He believed the agency should have delivered two to three times as many homes for the amount of money it had spent.
With billions of dollars from the previous Government, Kāinga Ora built record numbers of new houses each year, Labour said.
However, the National-led Government immediately put its performance under the microscope.
Former Prime Minister Sir Bill English led a review that said the agency’s debt had jumped from $2.7b in 2018 to $12.3b by June 2023, and was set to increase to $23b by 2028.
Kāinga Ora said its Meadowbank project had met all its financial metrics at the time of approval.
The Sky Tower and city skyline can be seen from the apartment dining rooms. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Its $11m price tag included engineer, architect and council fees as well as infrastructure and construction costs among other expenses.
The two-bedroom apartment opened for the public to view in October included a small lounge and dining room and kitchen with basic stainless steel bench tops and oven.
It had wheelchair access and the Sky Tower could be seen from its front window. The apartments were by the train station and popular cycle and walking paths.
One neighbour who sparked questions into the cost of the apartments said they were in one of Auckland’s “primo” locations, but another said he was “very sympathetic to the need for more state homes” and that if the Government already owned the land it “made sense” to build them there.
