The Prime Minister's standing by his comments about housing still being affordable in New Zealand.

Yesterday he remarked that website Trademe has plenty of homes for sale for less than $500,000.

INTERACTIVE: Click to discover exactly how many properties are within your price range, around the country.

Today he couldn't answer how many of those were realistically being sold for more at auction, but believed some prices were as low as $350,000 

He maintains it's incorrect to say there are no affordable properties available.

"Not everyone's going to be able to afford to buy a home but that's not a new concept it depends on everybody's circumstances, some people earn more and some people earn less but there are a lot of people getting into the housing market at that level, and they can afford it".

When questioned about first home buyers feeling he's out of touch with reality and that housing is unaffordable, he pointed to the First Home Buyers Scheme.

He admitted it's without doubt that some young couples will begin on the property ladder with an apartment, but says that's true everywhere in the world.

"That's the stair-casing affect that happens with housing in a lot of countries around the world ...it's mis-representing the situation to say that there are no properties under that (the $500,000) price."

And he's playing down the power struggle between Auckland Council and the Government over how best to ease the housing crisis.

He said the government's comments about Auckland Council's handling of the issue shouldn't be taken as criticism - they've actually been working collaboratively together for some time.

Labour's housing spokesperson Phil Twyford said billions needs to be spent on infrastructure to keep up with Auckland's growth.

Mr Twyford told Larry Williams the Government needs to get creative to be able to fund the infrastructure that's needed.

"The Government doesn't seem to have any ideas about new fresh approaches for financing infrastructure. Auckland's big problem is that the rate payers are staring down the barrel of a $17 billion bill for all of the infrastructure that's needed."

He said the policies increase bureaucracy for Auckland Council and it's an incremental drip feed of land that will simply add to the capitalisation of the housing market.

"What that does is it progressively feeds new land into what is already a very speculative market, it just feeds the speculation. It's the boundary itself that is a magnet for the property speculators and this not going to change that."