New Zealand's most valuable state house is worth more than $1 million and its tenants pay just $75 a week.
Housing New Zealand Corporation figures show that the 10 most valuable state houses are all in Auckland and worth more than $800,000, and that some of their tenants have been living there for decades.
In Wellington, the most valuable state house is worth $515,000, with six bedrooms, where 12 tenants pay $97 a week. One tenant has lived in a $495,000 Wellington house, paying $96 in rent a week, for 30 years.
Housing New Zealand will not reveal the address of its most expensive property, worth $1,088,000, except to say it is in its Glen Innes district, which also includes blue-chip suburbs Mission Bay, Kohimarama and St Heliers, as well as Orakei, Mt Wellington and Glendowie.
The family who live in the three-bedroom house have been there for five years. The land is valued at $1 million, the house itself at $88,000.
The next most expensive house is in the same area and worth $897,000. Its tenants pay $84 in rent, while tenants living in an $884,000 Glen Innes property pay just $50 a week.
Tenants living in an $866,000 Panmure house for $62 a week have been there for 35 years.
The most expensive house in the Manawatu-Wairarapa Housing New Zealand region is on the Kapiti Coast, and is worth $216,616. Seven people live in the six-bedroom house.
The most valuable state house in the East Coast-Hawke's Bay area is in Napier, and is worth $465,000. It is a two-bedroom house and its two occupants have lived there for 19 years.
A Housing New Zealand spokeswoman said about 90 per cent of its tenants paid rent based on their income. No more than a quarter of income went in rent.
It was important to provide housing in areas that were close to employment, schools and services, she said.
ACT MP Muriel Newman said the figures proved that Labour's housing policy was a failure. Paying 'a pittance' in rent while living in expensive suburbs meant there was no incentive for state housing tenants to find a higher-paying job or buy their own home.
First-home buyers accepted that they could not live in their 'dream suburb' and state house tenants should too.
She was also concerned that people were treating state houses as 'houses for life'.
Housing Minister Steve Maharey said it was not Government policy to sell state houses, because there was a shortage, but sections could be subdivided.
The housing market had changed in the past decade and the Government was working with local authorities to address the lack of available land for state housing.
It was also looking to overseas examples such as housing owned by community trusts and churches, but was committed to continue providing low-cost housing.
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