A major bank has this morning announced a target of at least $1 billion in lending to affordable housing solutions over the next three years.
Westpac commissioned Deloitte for a report into home ownwership in New Zealand and ways to arrest the decline of the past three decades. Westpac says it is targeting lending to community housing providers assisting people into home ownership.
Its report says shared equity, rent-to-own and leasehold properties could get tens of thousands of lower to middle income households into ownership. But a lack of awareness of the options, and capital has been holding those pathways back. The Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust has put some 200 households into leasehold homes - at about half the cost of market rates.
The trust's chief executive Julie Scott talks to Kathryn about the model.
Westpac chief executive Catherine McGrath talks about the bank's ambitions with affordable housing.
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
