Update from Kāinga Ora

Following the recent Government announcement, we are keen to share some information with you about the new plan for Kāinga Ora and how it will impact the work we do.

After several years of rapid growth, during which the mandate for Kāinga Ora expanded significantly, we’re going back to basics and refocusing on our core mission of providing social housing for those in need and being a good, supportive landlord to tenants and communities.

This reset is necessary and will help with our long-term financial sustainability. We need to focus on being a good landlord who looks after its tenants, a good neighbour who engages well with the community, and a common-sense developer who invests wisely and builds at a financially sustainable pace.

Kāinga Ora will continue to deliver new social housing – to either add to the state housing stock in places where more homes are needed or to replace existing homes at the end of their life. Over the two years to 30 June 2026, we will be adding 2,650 homes to the state housing stock, increasing the total number of state houses throughout Aotearoa to around 78,000. In the same time frame we’ll be renewing 3,000 of our existing homes through significant renovation, redevelopment, or by selling the home and building elsewhere.

We have a backlog of poorer quality, older homes that are expensive to maintain and can lead to poor health outcomes for our tenants. In the coming years, we are therefore turning our focus from growing our housing numbers to improving the quality of our housing portfolio. Our goal is to complete 11,500 renewals by the 2030 financial year and renew all pre-1986 homes within 30 years.

We've been seeking out the best, most cost-effective ways to deliver social housing, increasing the use of our Housing Delivery System and optimising our construction plans. We are now looking to reduce our build costs further by removing some of the additional requirements attached to social housing builds. Our aim is to deliver good quality homes at a cost that aligns with the market.

We’re mindful any dollar wasted is a dollar that could have been spent on social housing for the people in our communities who need it so we’re driving down costs by taking a more disciplined approach to spending. We’re working to right-size the organisation and ensure we get value for money for every dollar spent.

By streamlining our delivery teams with the creation of our Housing Delivery Group, we are driving a clearer and more consistent way of working with our build partners. This business group became effective at the beginning of February, and you’ll start to hear more about how it operates as processes are put in place. We’re open to new or refined build partner models and are always keen to get your feedback on how we can work together more effectively.

As part of our cost savings, we are transforming how we plan and deliver the maintenance work required on our housing portfolio, aimed at ensuring we do the right work at the right time. We’ll have new systems and controls providing much-improved planning and scheduling of maintenance and retrofit work.

As we work to implement the new plan for Kāinga Ora, we will keep you updated on any changes that might directly impact you. In the meantime, you can find more information about the plan on our website and in the Government announcement.

Thank you for your continued support.

Ngā mihi,

Matt Crockett, Chief Executive, Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities

Caroline McDowall, General Manager, Housing Delivery Group