OIA25-CB018
Brendon Mil s
[FYI request #30073 email]
Dear Brendon,
Thank you for your email of 26 February 2025 requesting the following information under the
Of icial Information Act 1982 (the Act):
I would like to know why you are capping the number of state houses at 78,000 and do you
accept that this wil lead to more homelessness and push up private sector rents?
On 4 February 2025, I released the Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities turnaround plan. The
turnaround plan was necessary because Kāinga Ora was in considerable financial strife.
The plan wil refocus Kāinga Ora on its core purpose of being a good social landlord and improve
operating performance and reduce losses, with debt capped at an acceptable level.
Kāinga Ora is currently funded to deliver around 2,650 additional houses around New Zealand
through to 2026 and the Government has also funded 1,500 further social houses to be delivered
by Community Housing Providers from June 2025 onwards.
The Kāinga Ora turnaround plan means that from 2026/27 onwards, Kāinga Ora wil be involved in
around 1,900 - 2,000 construction events per year, made up of approximately 1,500 new build
homes and 400 retrofits of existing homes. This wil be offset by demolitions associated with
redevelopment activities, and sales of around 900 homes per year. This means the number of
social houses wil not reduce over time, and existing older or unsuitable housing stock is refreshed.
The turnaround plan, and the associated Cabinet paper and Minute are available on the Beehive
website at:
www.beehive.govt.nz/release/turnaround-plan-get-k%C4%81inga-ora-back-track.
As mentioned, Budget 2024 allocated $140 mil ion of new funding from the 1 July 2025 to 30 June
2027 financial years for a total of 1,500 new social housing places, to be operated by Community
Housing Providers (CHPs).
The first 500 additional social housing places are being allocated based on the objectives of:
maximising value for money, contributing to the Government's target of reducing emergency
housing, and improving housing in historically under-served regions.
On 26 November 2024, I further announced a series of changes to remove barriers for CHPs in
delivering social housing. You can read more about that on the Beehive website at:
www.beehive.govt.nz/release/levelling-playing-field-community-housing-providers.
The answer to housing af ordability is increasing supply. The Government’s Going for Housing
Growth programme focuses on fixing the fundamentals of our housing crisis: land supply,
infrastructure, and incentives for growth.
Going for Housing Growth is split into three pil ars:
1. Freeing up land for development and removing unnecessary planning barriers
2. Improving infrastructure funding and financing to support growth
3. Providing incentives for communities and councils to support growth.
Together they improve housing affordability by significantly increasing the supply of developable
land for housing, both inside and at the edge of our urban areas. You can read more about this on
the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s website:
www.hud.govt.nz/our-work/going-for-
housing-growth-programme.
Your request is refused under section 18(d), that the information is publicly available.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review of my response by the Ombudsman, in
accordance with section 28(3) of the Act. The relevant details can be found on the Ombudsman’s
website at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Yours sincerely
Hon Chris Bishop
Minister of Housing
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