State housing in New ZealandThe standard of materials and construction was high because the Government was determined that the houses would not become slums. The Act specified that the rent was to be 5% per annum of the capital cost of the house and land, together with insurance and rates. The initial specification was that houses should cost no more than £300, but this was raised to £350–400, depending on construction materials, by the 1905 Amendment Act.[11] This resulted in weekly rents ranging between 10s 6d and 12s 7d.[12][a] All the houses had five rooms—a living room, a kitchen/dining room, and three bedrooms—as well as a bathroom.
But also:
Māori were excluded, in part because they could not afford the rentals, but also because Government ministers believed the races should be kept apart.[24]
…
In 1944, the Department of Native Affairs produced a report on the poor housing conditions of Māori in the Auckland suburb of Panmure. This and similar reports caused a change of policy; the Government would now build state houses for Māori, to be jointly managed by the State Advances Corporation and the Department of Maori Affairs, which had been renamed in the interim.
Once this had been made real, the right-wing party was forced to embrace state housing:
Although the National Party had opposed state housing in the 1938 election campaign, suggesting that it was a step towards the nationalisation of private property, in 1949 it promised to continue building state houses but also to allow tenants to buy them. Most people wanted to own their own homes, and this policy helped National win the election.[31]