Developers decry Affordable Housing Bill

By Andrea Milner

Housing Minister Maryan Street says the Bill is designed to stimulate the provision of more affordable housing for first homebuyers and low-income families in the rental market.

However Christchurch-based developer Hugh Pavletich, co-author of the Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, slammed the initiative as “by far the worst I have seen by any politician in the western world in recent years”.

The Bill will enable councils to require developers to either: include affordable housing in their developments, make payments towards the cost of providing affordable housing elsewhere, or provide land for the construction of affordable housing.