Multi-unit housing constructed in the 1950s and 60s was criticised for its use of low-cost materials and uniformity of design. This image of Porirua East was used in Housing Corporation publicity material in the late 1970s as an example to avoid in future housing schemes.
In this plan for the Maori housing settlement at Waiwhetu, Lower Hutt (c. 1947), houses are clustered around a marae, with the Waiwhetu Stream in the foreground. The complex subsequently built closely resembled this plan.
Securing a state house tenancy has been the dream of thousands of New Zealanders. This tenancy agreement of the 1950s provides the list of chattels included in an Orakei state house. Housing New Zealand Corporation
Self-contained communities are being built on the outskirts of our cities. This project at Trentham is designed so that the houses will surround a park.
John and Ngametua Ruta and their children stand alongside the Minister of Housing, Hon Mark Gosche, at the opening of their modified state house in Auckland in 2001
One beneficiary of the first Labour government's housing policy was the Fleury family of Dunedin. After living in a cramped, two-bedroom cottage on The Flat, Nell Fleury thought she had entered 'heaven' when she moved uphill to her four-bedroom state house in Corstorphine
A group of under-fives hold an animated meeting in Jutland Street, Naenae, c. 1945. Note the woman (possibly a mother of one or more of the children) watching the 'performance' through the window of the flat-roofed house.
Two boys ride their bikes around a 'cluster' state-house development in Hornby, Christchurch, in 1978. Safety issues are raised by the absence of helmets; something that could result in a fine today.
After an initial surge in 1951/52, sales of state houses declined before stabilising in mid-decade. Following Labour's election victory in 1957 they dropped steeply before rising briefly in the early 1960s with the return of National.
During the 1950s and 60s governments tried to reduce the cost of state housing by building more multi-unit dwellings and using cheaper materials, such as fibrolite
