Two Special Housing Areas (SHAs) with the potential for 210 new homes in Tauranga were approved today by Cabinet, Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith has announced.

“These two Special Housing Areas in Papamoa and Ohauiti mean that resource consents for housing in these areas can be fast-tracked. These two additional areas add to the seven announced in February this year, and bring the combined capacity of homes arising from the Government’s Housing Accord with the Tauranga City Council to 1900,” Dr Smith says.

The two areas were recommended by the council last month and approved today by Cabinet. The next step will be their formal gazettal on Thursday that will then enable the owners to apply for resource consents for the civil workers to create the 210 sections.

The two new Special Housing Areas are:

• Sunshine Paradise – Domain Road, Papamoa: 36 homes, 0.6 hectares
• Adler Drive, Ohauiti: 180 homes, 20.95 hectares

“I commend the work of the Tauranga City Council in advancing these Special Housing Areas and supporting the efforts of the Government to address housing issues in their communities. There is growing evidence that the housing pressures affecting Auckland are spreading to centres like Tauranga and Hamilton, and we need to free up land to bring new supply on-stream,” Dr Smith says.

“The Housing Accord is one part of the Government’s programme of work to address housing supply and affordability in Tauranga and in other regions across New Zealand. We are freeing up land supply, reining in development contributions, cutting compliance costs and investing in skills and productivity in the construction sector.

“Our HomeStart scheme, which provides grants of up to $20,000 towards the purchase of a first home, came into effect on 1 April this year and is expected to help 90,000 people over the next five years – including 3500 in Tauranga.

“The next key step in our programme is the second phase of Resource Management Act reforms to address the long-term issues affecting housing supply and affordability.”