4. Question No. 4—Housing and Urban DevelopmentHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of Housing and Urban DevelopmentQuestion No. 4—Housing and Urban Development4. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development: What is the total value of all KiwiBuild houses contracted under the Buying off the Plans scheme and does the Minister stand by his statement that the net cost of this scheme is zero?Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Housing and Urban Development): KiwiBuild has enabled more than $600 million worth of homes for first-home buyers and over the life of the programme yes.Hon Judith Collins: Is he confident buyers can be found for all 65 houses underwritten in Canterbury without the Government having to discount houses and suffer a loss on the underwrite?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: The answer is yes and part of the arrangement for the underwrite is that if the Government buys those houses back under the underwrite they do so at a discount which is there so that the Government can pick up any associated costs.Hon Judith Collins: Does he stand by his statement in the KiwiBuild Buying off the Plans Cabinet paper Nationally just five per cent of new housing supply is delivered at or below the lower quartile price." and then "my aim is to deliver housing at price points below the lower quartile … for [a] region."?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Yes.Hon Judith Collins: Is he aware that over 80 percent of the Canterbury KiwiBuild houses offered for sale are above the lower quartile price for Canterbury with 30 percent of them even being above the median?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well I would have to go and check the numbers on that but I'll come—[Interruption]Paul Eagle: What is the total value of all KiwiBuild houses contracted and committed?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: I'm advised that there are 10356 homes that are contracted and committed across the entire programme and this represents more than $5 billion worth of new homes committed and contracted for first-home buyers.Hon Judith Collins: Why did he include 65 houses in Canterbury in the first year of the programme after telling Cabinet in the KiwiBuild Buying off the Plans Cabinet paper that just 1 percent of all KiwiBuild houses would be in Canterbury over the entire lifetime of the programme due to Canterbury having no housing shortfall?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well as I've explained to the member a few times before while Canterbury doesn't have the most unaffordable housing in the country right now it has the second-fastest growth rates in the country. The market is becoming steadily more overheated and our Government doesn't want to see Canterbury descend into the same kind of affordability crisis that we've seen under that former Government's term in so many other parts of the country.Hon Judith Collins: Then what was the purpose of allocating $134 million of operating expenditure in Budget 2018 as a result of the Buying off the Plans initiative?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Can the member be more specific about that particular appropriation?Hon Judith Collins: Yes.SPEAKER: This is the same supplementary.Hon Judith Collins: Same supplementary—thank you Mr Speaker. Yes that would be the same $134 million net of capital expenditure being shifted in the aide-mémoire to the Minister on 14 May 2018 from Treasury—that one.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: My best recollection is that that was simply a book entry a transfer of funds to enable the KiwiBuild programme to go ahead and for those funds to be used for an appropriate purpose."