The number of families purchasing their first home in August dropped by more than 200 on the previous month, figures released by the Government show.
But the same figures, released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, show 27,768 families bought their first home in the 12 months to August 2019, an annual increase of more than 3000.
Housing Minister Megan Woods unveiled the Government's Housing Dashboard on Wednesday, a new platform promised last month as part of the KiwiBuild reset.
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"We made a commitment when we reset the KiwiBuild programme that we would deliver a monthly dashboard of housing measures to show New Zealanders how we're tracking," Woods said.
"As I said at the time of the reset, some statistics won't always improve month on month and we'll be upfront about those in this monthly dashboard."
The platform shows that 3402 homes are under construction in the Government's "build programme" across New Zealand - but families purchasing homes is down.
The figures quoted from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand show 2267 families bought their first home in August, down 225 on the previous month.
The platform also quoted figures from Stats NZ that show 3261 new homes were consented in August, down 159 on the previous month.
Other August figures:
- 80 new public houses built and more than 2300 currently under construction
- 1340 homes bought using the First Home Grant
- 61 KiwiBuild homes sold
- 967 households engaged in Housing First
Woods said the figures show the Government is making "good progress" on delivering houses, and that it's heading in the "right direction".
But she said the "size of the housing issues we inherited from the previous [National-led] government means there is still plenty to do."
The Government was forced to "recalibrate" Labour's flagship $2 billion KiwiBuild programme last month following its final target of 100,000 houses in 10 years being dropped.
The plan was to build 1000 homes in the first year, 5000 in the second, and 10,000 the year after. The reality has been way off.
The refreshed KiwiBuild programme will now focus on shared ownership schemes - a confidence and supply promise between Labour and the Greens.
The Government also made changes to the requirements for a KiwiSaver HomeStart grant, or as it's now called the First Home Grant. The deposit requirement was reduced from 10 percent to 5 percent.
Woods said in Parliament on Tuesday that the Government has purchased 100 houses that didn't sell in time since the beginning of the KiwiBuild programme.
She said 22 were purchased via underwrite, a scheme signed off by Cabinet last year, meaning the Government paid for losses incurred by private developers over KiwiBuild houses that didn't sell within an agreed period of time.
The cost of holding those properties that haven't sold is $162,000, split between body corporates and rates, marketing and utilities, according to the minister.
Woods announced that as part of the reset, the amount developers can receive for triggering the underwrite will be reduced so developers are incentivised to sell to KiwiBuild first home buyers.
National's housing spokesperson Judith Collins asked Woods if she is confident that the 859 more KiwiBuild homes that are underwritten but not yet announced will sell to KiwiBuild buyers within the underwrite period.
"Of those that we have contracted, we are currently going through them looking at where we believe there is high first-buyer demand," Woods replied.
"We clearly laid out mechanisms in the KiwiBuild reset for what would happen if that wasn't the case... But what I will also remind that member is we're not prepared to sit around doing nothing."
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