Ngā Wharerau O Aotearoa Welcomes The Commitment Of Funding For 1,500 New Social Housing Places From 1 July 2025

Wednesday, 22 May 2024, 6:16 pm
Press Release: Community Housing Aotearoa

The announcement to allocate $140 million to build 1,500 new social housing places is encouraging news for the community housing sector says Chris Glaudel, Deputy Chief Executive of Community Housing Aotearoa.

This funding means our Community Housing Provider members can reactivate projects that were put on hold waiting for additional budget authority. It will also help us to address our high and growing levels of homelessness and reduce reliance on emergency housing. We know providers are ready to build as the 3,000 places announced in last year’s budget were allocated in less than nine months.

We recognise this commitment has come at the expense of First Home Grants. Supporting people into home ownership remains important to the sector and the success of the Progressive Home Ownership Fund. We continue to call for a National Housing Strategy to provide greater confidence around policy settings and enable better housing outcomes for all New Zealanders across all housing tenures including home ownership and social housing.

While the commitment provides another year of funding to continue building new homes it still leaves the future uncertain. We are heartened to hear Hon. Chris Bishop say he has heard providers’ calls for longer term funding. Real estate takes time to develop and five+ year funding projections would better match development cycles and help the sector plan with certainty.

This current allocation will ensure we can continue to deliver new, sustainable, affordable housing in priority areas with the greatest persistent unmet housing needs. We will continue to work with Te Matapihi and Pacific organisations to achieve this. We all have a contribution to make to ensure all New Zealander’s are well-housed, and we look forward to future announcements enabling Kāinga Ora to resume their build programme.

We look forward to engaging with the Ministry for Housing and Urban Development and government on the new social housing settings signalled in todays announcement.

About Community Housing Aotearoa

Our 80 provider members own or manage homes for nearly 35,000 kiwis nationally across 19,300 homes, and our 59 partner members include developers, consultants, and local councils working to meet the needs of all peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand.

We believe all New Zealanders have the right to a decent home. A home that is affordable, secure, habitable, is near schools, transport and services and is culturally adequate. The Government’s announcement signals new opportunities for communities to deliver better housing outcomes.

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Community Housing Aotearoa

Nga Wharerau o Aotearoa

Community Housing Aotearoa is the peak body for New Zealand's community housing sector. Our 110 members build and manage affordable and social housing.

Our Vision is to make sure every New Zealander is well-housed in a warm, safe, dry and affordable home. This is a basic human right.

We work to support the growth and development of community housing providers to enable them to provide affordable and social housing.

We want to demonstrate that community housing is a critical element alongside private and government owned housing. No one can do it alone.

Community Housing Aotearoa aims to:

1. be the voice of the community housing sector
2. build capacity and foster collaboration
3. promote best practice in housing policy
4. champion quality and excellence.

Contact Community Housing Aotearoa

• Website - communityhousing.org.nz/
• Our Place - Learn how we think this can be achieved
• Phone - +64 4 385 8722
• About us - Our 2021 annual report is online here
• Email - support@communityhousing.org.nz
• Link - Members directory
• Physical Address - Level 11, Ranchhod Tower, 39 The Terrace/102-112 Lambton Quay, Wellington