5. Housing Affordability—Ability for Renters to Buy and Dwelling GrowthPHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister for Building and ConstructionHousing Affordability—Ability for Renters to Buy and Dwelling Growth5. PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister for Building and Construction: What percentage of renters are able to afford to buy a home according to the latest Housing Affordability Measure Report?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Building and Construction): Twenty-three percent of renters in the latest Housing Affordability Measure have a residual income after housing costs over the national average. This 23 percent compares with 22 percent in the previous report and actually 18 percent at the time of September 2008 when Labour was last in Government—i.e. 5 percent more renters today can afford to buy their home than when National came to office. I would also remind the member that this figure out today is for March 2016 when house prices were growing at 15 percent per year and 18 months later house prices are now flat.Phil Twyford: Can he confirm that since he became housing Minister the percentage of first-home buyers in Auckland spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing has gone up by 29 percent?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: No and that is about as accurate as the member's claims on Chinese-sounding names for which his leader has now apologised. And we are all waiting for the member to apologise.Phil Twyford: Does he think that $220 a week is enough for a family to live on given that the Housing Affordability Measure shows that since he became housing Minister there has been an increase of one-third in the number of potential first-home buyers in Auckland who would have only $220 left per week after their mortgage payments?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I can confirm that since I have been the Minister for Building and Construction the number of houses being built in Auckland has more than doubled. It has gone nationally from 14000 to over 30000 homes per year. I think every member in this House knows that the core of the solution to our housing challenges is getting more houses built and that is exactly what we are doing.Alastair Scott: What measures has the Government taken that would substantially improve housing affordability as measured by the experimental index?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: In Budget 2017 the Government announced the largest increases ever in the accommodation supplement with 136000 households receiving an average of $36 a week and with some households receiving an extra $145 a week. It is hard to take the member opposite's criticism seriously when his party voted against those increases which will actually substantially improve housing affordability for over 100000 households.Phil Twyford: Does he agree with Fletcher Building which said today that in the last year 5000 fewer houses have been built in Auckland than are needed to keep up with population demand and does that constitute a building boom"?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I woke up this morning to hear reports that there was a shortage of builders of plumbers and of electricians and that there was a shortage of cranes and of concrete trucks. That is because the building industry is in an all-time boom and in the pipeline are more than 100000 homes over the next 3 years—the biggest building boom in New Zealand history.Phil Twyford: Can he confirm that only a few hundred affordable homes were built in Auckland last year; if not what is the official number of affordable homes built in Auckland last year?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I can confirm that more homes were built in Auckland in the last year than there have been for more than a decade and that there is a record pipeline of new homes coming on stream. I can also confirm that in the last year Auckland house price inflation was minus 1 percent the lowest in 10 years showing that with the growth in supply housing affordability issues are being addressed.Phil Twyford: Does he realise just how ridiculous it is that he is still blaming Helen Clark's Government when after 9 years in office 77 percent of potential first-home buyers cannot afford to buy and 60 percent of renters cannot afford to rent without going into financial hardship?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The member's numbers are garbage. If he listened to what Statistics New Zealand said on this index released today he would know that they have got about as much credibility as the fiasco that embarrassed his own party over Chinese-sounding names."