Helping low income families into home ownership

The Herald reports:

First-home buyers have snapped up a quarter of the vacant state houses put up for sale by the Government, some for under $100,000.

A person earning less than the average wage, who does not own property, can now buy unused state houses in provincial areas with the help of a Government subsidy, which covers up to $20,000 of the cost.

Under the FirstHome scheme, Housing New Zealand has put 99 properties on the block since October and 25 have sold.

The average price for the properties was $125,800.

Housing Minister Nick Smith said the scheme was meeting its target of 100 sales a year. A further 90 people had applied for the subsidy.

The largest number of sales had taken place in Invercargill, Dunedin, Levin and Foxton.

Great. Selling state houses in areas they are no longer needed frees up capital for other areas, and low income families get to go from being tenants to house owners. A win-win.

Of course Labour and Greens oppose it.