Housing Minister Chris Bishop at Community Housing Aotearoa's conference. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
A community housing leader has heaped praise on the Housing Minister for making finance easier to access, but says the sector will still need to rely on private developers to help build new homes.
Speaking at Community Housing Aotearoa's conference on Tuesday, Chris Bishop announced a suite of changes designed to make it easier for community housing providers (CHPs) to borrow money for developments.
They included providing up-front funding and changing or removing contract clauses which currently deter investors.
They would put CHPs on a "level playing field" with Kāinga Ora, which gets far cheaper loans, Bishop said.
Community Housing Aotearoa chief executive Paul Gilberd said the minister had "clearly been listening" to what CHPs had been asking for.
"The minister's clearly signalled that this government is backing the community sector and now it's our job to deliver and to show that we're worthy of the confidence that's been shown to us by this government."
In May the government announced 1500 new social homes, which CHPs would deliver by 2027.
The changes in access to finance would help with that - but even then, CHPs would not have the money to do it alone, Gilberd said.
They would have to rely on private developers building homes, and then lease them either directly or through the government, he said.
That was not the sector's preference because there was a risk that at the end of a lease contract, developers could sell the homes, removing them from the social housing pool, said Gilberd.
"We would love for that new supply to be held and retained and recycled forever within the charitable community housing sector, or within Māoridom, or by the agency of the government, Kāinga Ora," he said.
But the community housing sector had to accept the government was tightening its belt, meaning they had to "learn to do more with less", said Gilberd.
"That's the challenge that we've been set, and I suppose my reticence here is just simply that it's going to be difficult," he said.
"Deeply disappointed" - Labour
Labour's housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said there was nothing "bad" in Bishop's announcement - but it did not go anywhere near far enough.
The sector needed two things, he said: a guarantee on loans, and an increase in the Income Related Rent Subsidy (IRRS).
The IRRS is a payment made to CHPs which tops up tenants' rent to meet market rates, giving CHPs certainty they can claw back their build costs over time.
"If we're going to deal with the housing crisis, it's going to take sustained investment from government, not fiddling around the edges, trying to find a quick fix," said McAnulty.
Bishop said the government was "committed to exploring" providing lending or guarantees direct to CHPs, or via private lenders.
"Saying you're going to explore something is completely different to saying you're going to do it," said McAnulty
"There was a clear expectation amongst those there today that the government was going to back them."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
