Work on building 49 new state houses in Hawke's Bay already underway

An artist's impression of what the new state houses will look like. Photo / Supplied

Work to build nearly 50 new state houses across Hawke's Bay could be complete within just three months, Housing New Zealand says.

"Work has begun on some of these developments and we are looking to have people and families in these new homes by mid-year 2018", a Housing New Zealand spokesman said.

"The placement process will follow the normal procedure. We match applicants from the Ministry of Social Development's social housing register and always aim to match people and families with the highest priority for housing first."

At the end of last year there were more than 400 Hawke's Bay residents registered on MSD's housing register. Of those, 134 applicants in Hastings were listed "Priority A" - those from households most in need of urgent placement - as were another 167 people in Napier.

"In addition, we will also look to move some Housing New Zealand tenants that have requested to be transferred to another house", the HNZ spokesman added.

"People and families are matched to homes based on a number of requirements such as their preferred location, the number of bedrooms needed and any other special requirements."

Housing NZ is building 49 new state homes to meet the growing housing demand in the region.

The houses are being built across a total of 38 locations across Hawke's Bay. Most would be built in Napier with six more two-bedroom homes to be built at Albert St, Cambridge St and Kauri St in Hastings.

Housing minister Phil Twyford announced the Government's intention to build the homes last month, as part of an initiative to build 155 new state houses across 15 regional centres.

The homes, to be built by Housing NZ, would be "modern, warm and dry homes" and are being built on vacant HNZ land and on its larger properties.

They would mostly consist of one- or two-bedroom low-maintenance homes, which would be fully insulated, and have carpets and curtains and be fitted with double glazing.

The programme of work is the largest building initiative Housing New Zealand had undertaken outside the main city centres in decades.