2. Housing—KiwiBuildJAMIE STRANGE (Labour) to the Minister of Housing and Urban DevelopmentHousing—KiwiBuild2. JAMIE STRANGE (Labour) to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development: Has he received any reports on the forecast rate of house building with and without KiwiBuild?Mr SPEAKER: Before I call the Hon Phil Twyford I'll indicate—I mean I'm getting a bit sick of it—that the Opposition have just lost the question they gained because of interjections during that question.Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Housing and Urban Development): Yes. Advice that I have received from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) shows that without KiwiBuild the number of houses will peak in 2019 below what is needed and then rapidly fall away. But with KiwiBuild the rate of house building will continue to increase so that we can start to fix the shortfall of 71000 houses we inherited from the past Government.Jamie Strange: Does the MBIE modelling show that KiwiBuild houses will be additional to homes that would otherwise be built?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Yes it does. The modelling shows that we can build more homes not displace work that would be done anyway. Indeed without KiwiBuild the number of homes built would fall according to MBIE modelling.Jamie Strange: How do the projections for home construction compare with previous home building levels?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well the official modelling which was available to the past Government shows that under the policies of that Government home building would have peaked at 34500 a year in 2019—far below the record of 39734 set in 1974 by the Kirk Labour Government. Now with KiwiBuild the number of houses built will ramp up to exceed 40000—the largest number ever—and on to set new records. To help achieve this the Government will invest in more training bringing in skilled workers from overseas and backing factory building to boost productivity.Marama Davidson: What plans does the Government have to ensure the additional houses built under the KiwiBuild programme are affordable for people on lower incomes?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: I thank the member for that question. The houses themselves will be affordable. We will build with density at scale and using off-site manufacturing to reduce costs. To further improve affordability under the Labour-Greens confidence and supply agreement we will be developing a rent-to-own scheme or similar progressive homeownership model as part of our KiwiBuild programme.Marama Davidson: What is the problem our new rent-to-own scheme or progressive homeownership scheme is seeking to address?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well homeownership is one of the best paths out of poverty providing stability of tenure and an incentive to save and under the past Government the dream of homeownership has been slipping further and further out of reach. We're going to change that with KiwiBuild building affordable homes and providing a rent-to-buy option that will make it even easier for families to own a home of their own. We are going to restore the opportunities for a greater number of New Zealanders to own their own home.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Will he commit to matching or improving on the record of the previous Minister and Government of a 15 percent compounded increase in building supply year on year?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: We're going to build 100000 affordable homes for first-home buyers and restore the dream of affordable homeownership.Hon Michael Woodhouse: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I understand I can't expect a yes or no answer but the question was about the rate of growth not about the number of KiwiBuild houses.Mr SPEAKER: I'm going to ask the member to repeat his question and for the Minister to have another go. He did introduce the rate of growth very clearly into his primary question.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Will he commit to matching the record of the previous Minister and Government of a 15 percent compound increase in the rate of houses being built under the previous Government?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: I will commit to a rate of growth that is needed to achieve our target of delivering 100000 affordable homes for first-home buyers.