8. Question No. 8—Housing and Urban DevelopmentHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of Housing and Urban DevelopmentQuestion No. 8—Housing and Urban Development8. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development: Does he stand by his statement on Saturday that many of the KiwiBuild houses that we're building don't require the Government to spend a dollar and that's why we're doing it through a buy-off-the-plan scheme"?Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Housing and Urban Development): Yes in the context it was made. All of the KiwiBuild channels leverage private sector investment—that's the point of the programme.Hon Judith Collins: What actions will the Crown need to take under its underwrite agreement if any of the 211 houses underwritten in Wānaka cannot be sold at the price points agreed with the developer?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Under the underwrite agreement they'll buy them. Hon Judith Collins: Is the business case for KiwiBuild Buying off the Plans reasonable in assuming the Crown will face an average cost of between $20000 and $50000 per house delivered by the Buying off the Plans initiative related to unsold houses a cost of up to $1.8 billion over the life of the programme?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: That's based on very conservative risk modelling.Tamati Coffey: Why is the Government leveraging private sector investment through buying off the plans?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: The Buying off the Plans business case shows that between $3.7 billion and $4.7 billion worth of KiwiBuild homes will be built over the life of the programme and because KiwiBuild is only part of any development it will enable the construction of approximately $5.5 billion worth of additional homes. It also incentivises the construction of more affordable homes rather than larger homes that earn the developers a bigger margin.Tamati Coffey: What reports has he seen from developers about the benefits of KiwiBuild's Buying off the Plans programme?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well one developer Shane Brealey from NZ Living who is undertaking KiwiBuild apartment developments in Onehunga and Ōtāhuhu said recently that KiwiBuild enabled him to get under way faster and with reduced costs. KiwiBuild has allowed him to go from the purchase of land to construction in just two months when it would normally take around a year with much more certainty as to whether those developments would even proceed. Hon Judith Collins: Does he have confidence in the assumption made in the Buying off the Plans business case that the KiwiBuild capital fund could be depleted by up to $1.8 billion to cover the cost of underwriting?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well that's a high-end risk scenario as part of a modelling; it's not a projection that one could be confident in. It's one part of a theoretical modelling exercise and it happens to be the high-risk high-cost end of the modelling.David Seymour: What advantage does the Government bring to the housing sector through KiwiBuild other than the sovereign right to tax about 5 million people?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: The Government brings to the housing affordability crisis the ability to use its balance sheet and its buying power to incentivise modest affordable starter homes that the market has failed to build over the last 10 years.Hon Judith Collins: How does he propose having the KiwiBuild capital fund deliver projects such as the one announced in Porirua recently if the fund is consumed covering the cost of the underwrite scheme?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well it won't be consumed by the cost of the underwrite scheme. The capital fund is there to sustain the delivery of KiwiBuild: first through the buying off the plans and underwrite channel; and secondly through the land for housing programme within which the Crown makes available land to developers who agree to build KiwiBuild and public housing on it and then pay for that land at the end of the development project. The KiwiBuild fund will also be sustaining the building of new KiwiBuild homes for sale to first-home buyers in large-scale projects that the urban development authority will run in places like Porirua and at the Unitec development.Rt Hon Winston Peters: To proceed with Mr Seymour's question in the interests of accuracy are there 5 million New Zealanders paying tax in this country? [Interruption] SPEAKER: Order! Order! I know but if we required accuracy from all questions we'd be authenticating all day. I think everyone in the House knows that Mr Seymour was wrong. We don't need to rub it in.David Seymour: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think if you review the Hansard you'd say the "right" to tax approximately 5 million people. I never implied that there were 5 million taxpayers and frankly I think it's wrong for you to enter the debate and say that I was wrong.SPEAKER: Well I respect the member's view."