September 27, 2023
Potaka keen for private housing boom
National’s Hamilton West candidate wants to see government take a back seat in the provision of housing.
Before entering parliament in a byelection, Tama Potaka worked on major property and housing developments as chief executive of Ngai Tai ki Tamaki.
He says economic and regularity dials need to be in right place so there is a mix of housing provision both by government but mainly by private developers, community providers, iwi and others who want to provide housing – whether that is social and transitional housing through to market housing.
“Right now the dynamic in terms of the economic dials and the regulatory dials in our view, the view of the National Party and myself, aren’t in the right place where you can grow and deliver housing at scale. They are definitely in a place where government, given its low cost of capital and some other attributes, can deliver at scale but that skews the market and in my view that’s problematic,” Mr Potaka says.
Since 2017 Labour has delivered 13,000 additional public houses, compared with a reduction of 1200 in state house numbers over the term of the previous National Government.