Lee Melissa: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10064. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National): Ahn nyung ha se yo Mr Assistant Speaker. It is a great pleasure to rise in support of this Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill. Before I begin though I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister of Finance the Hon Bill English who has delivered a magnificent Budget—a Budget that builds momentum for a brighter future for all New Zealanders.Moving on to the bill. As I get into the bill I would like to give a piece of advice to Ms Holly Walker who just sat down. People who want to get into their first home do not actually pay median house prices. Often they buy at the bottom of the market which is affordable. When you look at the websites that actually sell houses you can buy plenty of houses—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! Order!MELISSA LEE: Sorry—members and people can buy lots of houses that are priced well under $400000.Too many New Zealanders however have to spend too much of their income on purchasing their ultimate Kiwi dream. Owning their own home—the piece of land with the house on it—has been a dream for Kiwis for many many years. This situation is bad for people who have these dreams because in Auckland as many members have said we actually do have a crisis and it is a given that having high housing costs means that New Zealanders owe more. The rising house prices affect interest rates and the exchange rate. The lack of housing—an affordable house at a cost people can afford—will mean more demand for State housing assistance as well.The situation is obviously not ideal. This National-led Government is doing something about it unlike the empty promises of the Labour Party claiming it will build 100000 homes in Auckland for under $300000 which is a complete lie because an average section in Auckland costs roughly around $350000.Does Grant Robertson know how to build a house? Does he actually know that you have to purchase a section to build the house on top of it? Does he know that it actually costs money to purchase the materials required for building that house? Does he know that the tools for building the hammers in fact cost a lot more than the $300000 that that party promises New Zealanders it can deliver? I say to Labour: stop misleading the good people of New Zealand who desperately want to dream about getting into their dream home. Stop misleading them because that is totally totally unfair and it is a lie.The National Government however is doing something about house prices. We are going to improve the affordability of homes. This bill provides for a special Auckland housing accord that sets a target over 3 years of 39000 new homes being consented to. This is a greater number than the 3600 homes currently being consented to each year. The accord will allow for greenfield development to be consented to in 6 months instead of 3 years as it is currently. This accord is a great example of how Government can work collaboratively with councils to make housing available.Hon Simon Bridges: That’s right.MELISSA LEE: That’s right Simon. It is collaboration. This bill will allow the same success to be repeated in other areas other centres around New Zealand. Up and down the country this can actually be repeated.The Productivity Commission identified land supply as one of the key areas that constrains housing development. It is the view of this Government that when five key areas are targeted we will improve and achieve affordability of the homes that Kiwi dreams are built on. The five key areas are land supply material costs infrastructure productivity in the construction sector and compliance costs and we are dealing with these five sectors. We are delivering for New Zealand.This bill will speed up the provision of new housing in areas where housing is least affordable. Faster approvals will help meet demand and help to put out a bit of the fire in the overheated housing market in Auckland and that has to be a good thing. I commend this bill.