KiwiBuild

Finance Minister Grant Robertson outlined a mini-budget on 14 December 2017 which allocated $2 billion of capital spending to KiwiBuild.

[3] In mid-January 2019, Housing Minister Phil Twyford acknowledged that the government would be able to build only 300 of the 1,000 KiwiBuild homes it had promised by 1 July 2019.

In late January, Barclay filed a constructive dismissal case against HUD, claiming that the Ministry had breached his privacy.

Changes included the target of building 100,000 houses over 10 years being abandoned, the allocation of $400 million to support alternative home ownership schemes (such as rent-to-own), those buying studios and one-bedrooms units only having to commit to one year of ownership opposed to three, the 10% deposit requirement for a First Home Grant being lowered to 5%, allowing groups of more than three to combine their $10,000 First Home Grants together for a single joint deposit, and the amount developers receive after triggering the underwrite being lowered.

[19][20] Following the sale of the first KiwiBuild homes, then-Housing Minister Phil Twyford stated that the scheme was not targeted towards working poor and unemployed families, attracting criticism from aspiring home-owners and activists who argued that KiwiBuild will lead to increased speculation and gentrification.