National Housing Policies: Going for housing growth

This policy is looking to unlock land for new housing and to encourage more homes, shops and offices to be built close to transport links like train stations and bus hubs. It also wants to drive the building of more infrastructure (roads, pipes and powerlines) in cities to support these extra homes.

The new housing growth policy will be asking councils to bring more land forward to build houses on. This might be land which was earmarked for development in the future on undeveloped or greenfield sites at the edge of the city. This will bring down the price of land and increase the supply of affordable housing, it says.

A National-led government wants to simplify planning rules and make resource consents for new houses cheaper and faster. In the coming years, the new government plans to completely replace the Resource Management Act, which governs how land is used and what infrastructure is provided, among other things.

The new Government will reform infrastructure legislation so that it’s easier for developers to fund infrastructure and it will establish a National Infrastructure Agency in the first 100 days of government. It will also change how infrastructure for new greenfield developments (undeveloped land in urban or rural area) is funded with more choices for councils.

The new government will financially reward councils for being proactive about building more houses through its $1 billion Build-for-Growth fund. For every house delivered above the five year average in a council area, the council will receive $25,000.

The National-led Government will be closing some initiatives first home buyers have used in recent years. These include the Buying Off The Plans initiative (formerly known as KiwiBuild) and the Affordable Housing Fund.