More money but less housing

The Government has re-announced a multi-million dollar loan to go towards the development of infrastructure in Auckland's northwest.

It's saying a 339-million dollar interest-free loan will go towards building communities with 7000 new homes in Redhills and Whenuapai.

That's three-and-a-half thousand fewer homes than the National Government promised a year ago - at an added cost of 39-million-dollars.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says the figures aren't as high as they'd anticipated - but and they're realistic, and it's a step forward.

He says with the backlog of housing that needs to be built there's a growth in the construction cost index and that affects the price of infrastructure.

The international costs have also gone up and that has an impact on us as well.