Council-owned property company gives first-home buyers a fighting chance

Friday, 30 October 2020

Daniel Moriarty, acting chief executive of Urban Plus Limited, says the company says putting houses priced at $550,000 aside for first-home buyers was about giving them a leg-up in a highly competitive market.

A council-owned housing company is helping out first-home buyers in one of the country’s hottest markets.

Yang Gan and Julia Chu will soon be shifting into their new home at Urban Plus Limited’s 34-house Central Park on Copeland development in Lower Hutt, having taken advantage of a special deal worked out for people trying to get on the property ladder.

The Hutt City Council-owned company reserved 10 two-bedroom townhouses at the site for $550,000 for verifiable first-home buyers.

In September, Lower Hutt hit a record median house price of $702,000.

* New block of townhouses snapped up hours, as prices soar in the Hutt Valley

* Mayor wants to help people sleeping in cars, not property developers

* Steep rise in higher-density housing consents in Lower Hutt

After two years of searching for a place of their own, Yang Gan and Julia Chu, pictured with their son Hudson, secured a townhouse at Central Park on Copeland, in Lower Hutt.

“We started seriously looking for our own place in 2018,” said Chu. “The price of these townhouses is enough to give us a start on the property ladder.”

The development is near completion and settlements were expected to be reached in mid-November.

The townhouses at the development went up for sale last year and quickly sold out off the plans. Regular prices for two-bedroom dwellings started at $565,000 and three bedroom home began at $630,000.

Hutt City Council estimates 9606 new houses need to be built in the city by 2047 to keep up with population growth.

Urban Plus’ acting chief executive Daniel Moriarty said setting the price at $550,000 meant buyers were eligible for the government’s First Home Loan scheme. To apply for the loan in and around Wellington a new home must be priced $550,000 or under. The cap differs between regions.

“It’s about giving those first-home buyers a leg-up.”

Lower Hutt's housing market was on fire with low stock and high demand pushing prices sky-high, he said.

The city has experienced the third largest increase in median property prices, with 18 per cent growth in the 12 months to September, according the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand. Only South Wairarapa, at 34 per cent, and Upper Hutt, with 25.4 per cent, had bigger increases.

The council estimates 9606 new houses need to be built in the city by 2047 to keep up with population growth.

Moriarty said while Urban Plus did have to deliver a profit like any other company, its only shareholder, the council, had mandated it to provide affordable housing in the city.

A number of townhouses at another Urban Plus development in Waterloo were also set aside for first-home buyers.

Townhouse developments have been quick to spring up around Lower Hutt following a change to the district plan in March last year, allowing medium density housing to be built across more of the city.

Professionals real estate agent Shane Brockelbank said townhouses were becoming more popular among first-home buyers, particularly those who did not want to spend time renovating and maintaining an older house.

He said about half the properties he had sold in Lower Hutt in the last 12 months were off the plan townhouses.