Govt only plans to overhaul $50b apartment sector in 2019: Twyford

The apartment sector could change next year. Photo/Michael Craig

The Government plans to overhaul the $50 billion apartment sector by tightening laws but Housing Minister Phil Twyford says this won't be until next year at the earliest.

Reacting to Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye and urban development spokeswoman Judith Collins joint push for a law reform, Twyford said that would come but not immediately.

Jacinda Ardern, Shane Jone, Phil Twyford and Julie-Anne Genter. Photo/Mark Mitchell

"Labour supported the previous government's work in this area as it offers a pragmatic solution," he said today.

"During my meeting with Nikki Kaye and Judith Collins, I suggested a joint approach and I'm happy to work with them on this on a non-partisan basis.

"The Government will not be in a position to introduce legislation to Parliament on the apartment sector until next year at the earliest as there are other more urgent housing needs," he said.

The moves follow Kaye's extensive "apartment blues" project where she held meetings two years ago then worked with sector representatives to draft big changes. However, the National Government never reformed the law before last year's election and the project stalled.

But Kaye indicated today she hadn't given up.

"Judith Collins and I recently met with the Minister of Housing. We committed - if we were in government - to have a unit titles reform bill introduced into Parliament by Christmas last year. The minister has said he is interested in progressing the reform that the last government was progressing but that it may take until the latter part of this year to draft a reform bill.

"Judith and I are working with some sector representatives to try and progress the drafting of a member's bill so we can move quicker on this. The final details of a bill would need to be agreed by the National caucus but we hope to have something ready in the next two months," Kaye said.