By AUDREY YOUNG political reporter
Housing New Zealand had a surge of applicants for state houses in the run-up to income-related rents that began a week ago.
More than 5700 people applied for state houses in September and October and are waiting for assessment.
That is more than half the present waiting list of 10,000.
The figure drew speculation from Opposition MPs yesterday that applicants may begin moving into garages and cars to secure priority on the waiting list.
Housing New Zealand chief executive Michael Lennon told MPs on the social services select committee that it had no projections on how long the waiting lists would become.
Act MP Muriel Newman suggested that it was "irresponsible" to have no view.
National MP and former Housing Minister Tony Ryall predicted that the waiting list would double "and nobody will want to move out of state houses."
He also claimed the Government was backing down on its policy of stopping state house sales, after Mr Lennon said he had discussed the matter with Housing Minister Mark Gosche.
Mr Lennon said the minister had instructed that no state houses be sold this year but discussed the need for sales to help reconfigure the housing portfolio.
Mr Ryall said he had been pilloried by Mr Gosche for selling empty houses in Invercargill and Wanganui to meet demand in South Auckland. Now, the Government was going to do the same.
Mr Gosche said later that the no-sales policy was being relaxed and the company would be able to sell vacant houses.
But he also said the introduction of income-related rents would increase the demand for state houses and there would be even fewer vacancies.
"We're not foolish. We're not going to say you must keep every house in New Zealand even if nobody wants to live in it. "But I don't think there'll be much actually sold because our vacancy rates are so low. Demand is about to be tested."
The present vacancy rate is 1.6 per cent of 59,000 properties.
Housing New Zealand had also been instructed to reinvest sales revenue into new stock and to increase the number of houses by 1500 over three years.
More that 11,000 houses were sold in the past 10 years. Labour's election pledge last year was to "stop the widespread selling of state housing stock."
Mr Lennon also told the committee that Housing New Zealand was involved in the taskforce exploring uses for the Hobsonville air base.
He said the company was always interested in large tracts being opened up in Auckland. That did not necessarily mean it was a buyer.
Thousands join housing queue
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