Land for Housing

The Land for Housing programme acquires vacant or under-utilised Crown and private land that’s suitable for residential development.

Land for Housing is active throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, working in collaboration with iwi and private developers to increase housing supply through the construction of a mix of affordable, public and market-priced homes.

What gets built

Ministers agree the outcomes for each development, including how many homes should be built, how quickly they’re to be built and the mix of tenure (i.e public housing, affordable housing or market homes).

Across the programme as a whole, at least 20 per cent of the new homes must be made available for public housing, with a further 30 per cent to be a mix of homes sold at prices attainable to first home buyers (i.e. at or below the relevant KiwiBuild price caps), progressive home ownership and purpose-built rental homes.

Working with iwi

The majority of Land for Housing development opportunities involve commercial partnerships with iwi. The programme:

works with iwi where Crown land suitable for housing development is subject to Treaty settlement obligations, for example, rights of refusal,
investigates opportunities identified by iwi to partner in development, and
facilitates Treaty settlement opportunities over land to be acquired for housing.

Land for Housing complements other government initiatives to increase outcomes for Māori in housing, such as ensuring the durability of Treaty settlements and meeting post-settlement commitments.