The apartments come with an oven, cooktop, dishwasher, washer-dryer combo and carpark. Photo / Supplied
The trickle of new KiwiBuild homes coming on to the market is speeding up as another 10 apartments in Ōtāhuhu open for public viewings.
The two-bedroom apartments are located at 20 Mason Ave and priced between $580,000 and $600,000.
They come with an oven, cooktop, dishwasher, washer-dryer combo, floor coverings, LED downlights and a carpark.
From tomorrow, interested buyers can view the homes every weekend until November 30.
Those wanting to enter the ballot to be given the chance to buy them can do so from Monday until the end of the month.
Head of KiwiBuild Stephen Barclay said the development showed the Government was "getting some runs-on-the-board".
"Lucky ballot winners in the Mason Square development could be living in their very own home by Christmas," he said.
A further nine KiwiBuild dwellings are under construction at Mason Square and are scheduled for completion by June 2019.
So far 18 KiwiBuild homes have been completed in Papakura, while a further 70 are under construction in South Auckland and in Wanaka in the South Island.
Contracts have also been signed to build another 3367 KiwiBuild homes, but the locations of most of these are yet to be announced, according to the Government.
It said KiwiBuild was on track to deliver the first 1000 KiwiBuild homes by mid-2019, a further 5000 homes by June 2020 and 10,000 homes in the year to June, 2021.
However, the unveiling of the first 18 KiwiBuild homes in Papakura last weekend re-ignited debate about how many Kiwis can afford them.
This took an ugly turn when one of the first families to move into the homes deleted their social media accounts after being accused of being too wealthy.
Fletcher Ross and Derryn Jayne took ownership of their four-bedroom KiwiBuild home at a cost of $649,000, but it led to questions about whether a graduate doctor and marketing manager should be eligible for the programme.
Housing Minister Phil Twyford and National hard-hitter Judith Collins also became embroiled in a slanging match over the saga after Collins posted a message on the young couple's instagram page.
Twyford accused Collins of being a cyber-bully, but she counted saying the trouble suffered by the pair was due to the Housing Minister's fault for putting them up as KiwiBuild "poster children".
Twyford this week also acknowledged many people would struggle to afford KiwiBuild houses - at prices in Auckland up to $650,000 - and said the Government was working on a new shared-ownership scheme.
This would likely involve the Government or banks buying homes in partnership with low-income Kiwis by paying a share of the upfront cost of each house and the buyer paying the rest.
By having the Government take a stake in their home, the buyer would then have a smaller home loan and reduced mortgage payments. At a later date, they could then buy the home outright.
The scheme could also be used in conjunction with KiwiBuild plans to build 100,000 houses for first-home buyers around the country.
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