The state houses at 4 Winsomere Crescent, Westmere, have made way for two new townhouses.
The state houses at 4 Winsomere Crescent, Westmere, have made way for two new townhouses.
Housing NZ says it held onto properties in top suburb for better price
A one-bedroom state house in one of Auckland's most expensive suburbs sat vacant for 805 days before being sold, despite the area having a pressing housing need.
The house and its semi-detached neighbour in Westmere were sold together for $1.7m in March last year.
They were among the 420 state houses sold by Housing NZ between February 2014 and February 2015. Data released under the Official Information Act shows long periods of vacancy in the period between when tenants moved out and when the house changed hands.
The figures, which exclude sales to tenants, show one house in Wairoa stood empty for three years and 241 days before it was sold.
Two large homes look to have been developed on the existing property of number 4 Winsomere Crescent, Westmere. Photo / Nick Reed
Labour claims the figures show the housing agency is keeping people on a 5000-strong waiting list while houses stand empty around the country being prepared for sale.
Housing spokesman Phil Twyford said he was "highly critical" of Housing NZ's management of the housing stock which had left 2000 homes vacant across the country - "some of them boarded up" - and a high housing need which was not being met.
He said people had also been put off by a tough assessment process. "It's incredibly tough to even get on the waiting list."
But Housing NZ told the Herald it had a 99.2 per cent occupancy rate across 68,000 houses.
A spokeswoman said it sold state houses for reasons which included the property "being old and too expensive to maintain, it no longer meeting tenants' needs, it is not performing financially, or it is not in the right place to meet demand".
The spokeswoman said the money from sales was put back into housing through "new homes, or buying or leasing more of the right types of houses where they are needed to meet high demand".
She also said it was Housing NZ's policy not to let properties on a short-term basis.
The sales are separate from the Government's social housing programme, which will involve state houses being transferred to non- government bodies.
The figures show 18 Housing NZ properties were sold in Auckland, including the two in Westmere. The semi-detached homes stretched over a corner property on Winsomere Crescent and Weona Place.
Housing NZ said the Winsomere Crescent home stood empty for 805 days because it was waiting for the Weona Place house to become vacant so both could be sold at once.
The Weona Place house also stood vacant - this time for 211 days - before both were sold for $1.77 million. Property records show a businessman known for carrying out a number of multi-million dollar property developments across Auckland bought both and had them bulldozed.
Building of the two new homes is almost complete.
Local sales data show the median sales price for Westmere rose from $1,247,500 between May and July last year to $1,477,500 in the same time period this year.
Other sales included a series of apartments on inner-city White Street which stood vacant for 477 days. Housing waiting-list statistics show that during the period of the sales, there were 74 people listed as waiting for a house in the immediate area - and that the area of highest need was for one-bedroom homes.
Housing activist Gael Baldock said there was "absolutely and utterly" no need for any state house in Auckland central to stand empty. "The closer into the centre of the city you get, the bigger the need is."
The highest number of sales in any area was in Whanganui, where 73 state houses sold - 10 per cent of the city's total housing stock. The executive officer for social agency Jigsaw Whanganui, Tim Metcalfe, said those seeking houses often didn't want to live in the area where the houses were being let.
"The other things which have been a deterrent for people is the upkeep of Housing NZ houses. The houses have deteriorated. People have needed to go with private landlords."
There was also a high number of sales in Hawkes Bay. Labour's candidate for Tukituki in the last election, Anna Lorck, said there were empty houses across the region despite a high housing need.
The Hastings district has one of the highest provincial waiting lists, with 102 families seeking homes. However, of the 30 houses sold over 2014, a third were empty longer than two years, with one vacant for 1045 days.
In Dunedin, where there were 40 families on waiting lists in mid-2014, there were 26 houses sold after long periods standing vacant. Local MP Clare Curran said the assessment process was difficult for those wanting houses and created a "hidden waiting list" of those who could not get on waiting lists.
The Government currently has three housing ministers - one to handle the stock, one to handle the people going into it and a third to handle sales. It was the latter minister, Bill English, who the Herald referred questions to on the issue last night. He did not respond by press time.
