9. Question No. 9—HousingNICOLA WILLIS (National) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 9—Housing9. NICOLA WILLIS (National) to the Minister of Housing: Does she stand by her response to concerns that the First Home Grants and Loans caps are too low so for the lower quartile the fourth quartile of that that is the median point of houses currently that had been sold in March in 2021"; if so how many homes at this price point will the Housing Acceleration Fund aim to get built in the next 24 months?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): Thank you Mr Speaker. I stand by my full response for determining the increase to First Home Grants and Loan caps. They are based on prices in the lower quartile part of the market which is where many first-home buyers are purchasing. I will remind that member that the package has two distinct components: demand measures and supply measures. The member is confusing our Government's help for first-home buyers with the supply side component of our package. In answer to the second part of the member's question the intent of the $3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund is to increase supply by creating build-ready land for housing to be built on. This is something that councils and developers have told us is missing from the system and we are acting on it. This fund is there to enable houses to be built. Within the fund there is an allocation as part of the Land for Housing Programme to focus on non-market outcomes such as pace and affordability. The Housing Acceleration Fund will begin making investments in the second half of this year and work will commence within the next 12 to 18 months. By the end of June I will take the final design including criteria to Cabinet and I expect the criteria will include a performance framework to measure its success.Nicola Willis: What did she mean when she said on Radio New Zealand last night "So what I'm saying is it's based on the data. So what we know is what the four quartiles of housing are. So for the lower quartile the fourth quartile of that that is the median point of houses currently that had been sold in March in 2021. So it's based on evidence and it's based on data."?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: What I meant is exactly that. What I meant is that what we are seeing is that we are rolling out an increase to our first-home loan products that are based on the lowest quartile of housing prices. This has always been the case with these products. What I am incredibly proud of is the fact that our Government has been delivering over 16892 First Home Grants a year. This compares to National in Government who were only delivering 6275.Nicola Willis: Does she agree with analysis based on Real Estate Institute sales data that only an additional 487 houses would have qualified for the adjusted First Home Grant scheme had it applied last year and if not what is the number?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: What I can tell that member is just before I came down to question time there were over 1400 homes below the price cap available in Auckland alone.Nicola Willis: How can we trust this Minister to deliver for first-home buyers when in December 2018 the previous Minister of Housing made changes to the First Home Grant and Loan scheme promising it would fund an additional 230 grants per year but between then and now the number of First Home Grants approved each year has decreased by more than 2000?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I've already informed that member in answer to a previous supplementary question that this Government has been performing at nearly three times the rate of giving out First Home Grants than the previous National Government. We are a Government that have prioritised first-home buyers and are doing everything to support them—nearly three times more than the previous Government did."