In four months, zero applications for Kiwibuild homes in the Waikato

Phil Twyford announced in October 2018:

Minister of Housing and Urban Development Phil Twyford today announced that the ballot will open next week for the first KiwiBuild homes to be built in the Waikato.

The first 10 KiwiBuild homes to be balloted at the Lakeside development in Te Kauwhata are two-bedroom modern standalone homes, all fully landscaped with off-street parking and a home appliance package. They are priced at $480,000 each, well under the KiwiBuild price caps.

Initial works are already underway and construction of these 10 KiwiBuild homes will be completed by Christmas 2019. The ballot opens on Monday 29th October for these first ten homes.

So 108 days ago they opened applications for the ballot for these ten homes. How many applications did they get in 108 days? 200? 100? 50? 20? 10? 5?

It was zero.

Newshub reports:

As for the houses that Minister Twyford was very excited to show off in Te Kauwhata, the number of people interested in those is a big fat zero – no one has entered the ballot.

Zero interest after 108 days. They’d be bankrupt if they were a private sector developer. But they have an unlimited sources of funds from the taxpayer to keep them going.