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Implementation partners
Private sector landlords, not for profit sector housing providers, the development sector, the construction industry, Auckland Council and central government all contribute to delivering Homes and Places across Auckland.
Private individuals, community housing providers, and central government are the main housing providers within Auckland.
Central and local government
Central government is a key contributor to the housing market in Auckland through a variety of functions:
- providing social housing - Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities (formerly Housing New Zealand) is the largest single residential landowner in Auckland and provides a range of support services to social housing tenants
- providing accommodation support for individuals
- government grants that enable community organisations to provide housing and related services
- policy settings and the legislative frameworks.
Central government has recently changed the legislative framework that provides for minimum quality standards for privately-owned rental properties.
Auckland Council and central government work together to deliver homes and places through:
- contributing funding that supports the provision of bulk infrastructure within Auckland, unlocking potential development
- delivering projects that unlock development opportunities.
Auckland Council facilitates the release of land for development through the Auckland Unitary Plan and other planning processes and consenting services.
Auckland Urban Development Office helps to rejuvenate parts of Auckland – from small projects that refresh a site or building, to major transformations of town centres or neighbourhoods.
Auckland Urban Development Office, Auckland Transport and Watercare work together to deliver many of these projects together with Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency, and other Crown agencies.
The Auckland Design Manual (ADM) developed by Auckland Council provides guidance on the design concept and development phase in accordance with the Auckland Unitary Plan rules. The ADM's Universal Design concepts and guidance on Māori Design are examples of more specific guidance that can apply to both private and public places.
Community housing sector
Community housing providers play a fundamental role in supporting people to be well-housed and live in homes that are habitable, affordable, accessible, secure and culturally appropriate. Community Housing Aotearoa is New Zealand's umbrella organisation that supports the community housing sector and providers to achieve these goals.
Māori housing sector
There are a number of key partners across government and the community housing sector that support and enable Māori housing aspirations. Some of these include:
- Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga / Ministry of Housing and Urban Development - responsible for advising and delivering the Government's housing and urban development programme. Part of this programme includes the mobilisation and implementation of MAIHI Ka Ora, the Māori Housing Strategy that sets out a vision for Māori housing for the next 30 years. This will be achieved through targeted programmes and investments that are centred on Māori housing needs.
- Te Puni Kōkiri - a central government agency that provides information, funding, advice and practical support to build capability and improve housing outcomes for Māori.
- Te Matapihi - an independent organisation that advocates for Māori housing interests and assists policy development at central and local government levels.
- Community Housing Aotearoa - the peak body for Aotearoa’s community housing sector supporting other Māori housing providers, often in partnership with other Māori entities.
Auckland Council has identified ten strategic priorities to support Māori outcomes, one of which is ‘papakāinga and Māori housing’. It focuses on supporting Māori housing and papakāinga aspirations through providing expert advice, appropriate investment and improved associated infrastructure.
Mechanisms used to work together
The Housing First Auckland partnership applies a multi-agency approach to provide ongoing wrap-around support services to help people stay in their homes and to end homelessness in Auckland. Find out more on the Housing First website.
The Auckland Housing and Urban Development Joint Programme is a collaboration between council and central government to deliver shared housing and urban growth priorities in Auckland. The programme covers both spatial priorities (e.g. development opportunities arising from the City Rail Link) and policy priorities, such as how to deliver more affordable housing and quality intensification.
Central government has signalled its intention to accelerate the construction of housing and development at scale in Auckland through a range of mechanisms.
Some of these mechanisms include:
- establishing Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities to support KiwiBuild and to allow such large-scale projects to be built more quickly
- identifying vacant or under-utilised Crown-owned land that is suitable and available for housing development and facilitating the construction of dwellings to increase housing supply in collaboration with the iwi/hapū of Tāmaki Makaurau and private developers
- the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act 2020 which established a new funding and financing model to enable private capital to support the provision of new infrastructure for housing and urban development
- a $3.8bn Housing Acceleration Fund which will support the provision of critical infrastructure needed for housing development, unlock more land for housing development, and support delivery of a wider mix of housing for ownership and rental that is affordable for low to moderate income households.
In the long-term, Auckland Council needs to find new ways of funding infrastructure through existing funding tools or potentially coming up with new mechanisms.
The Auckland Housing Programme is one of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities’ large-scale projects which will deliver small, medium and large-scale housing developments in Auckland over the next 10 years. Read more about this initiative on the Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities website.
Auckland Council offers tailored services to meet consenting needs for large-scale and complex developments. As an alternative to the standard online consenting service, Auckland Council partners with developers through the qualified partner service (applies to standardised, repeat new builds or selected customers with approved assurance plans) and premium service (for large-scale development, infrastructure projects or social infrastructure projects including emergency housing, iwi developments and Māori housing developments).
Supporting strategies and plans
Auckland Unitary Plan
The Auckland Unitary Plan helps achieve the direction of the Auckland Plan 2050 by setting the rules for:
- what can be built and where
- how to create a higher quality and more compact Auckland
- how to provide for rural activities
- how to mitigate environmental impacts.
How to get involved
- If you're interested in providing community housing visit the Housing assessment website
- To find out more about the building and consents process and other building considerations see Building and consents.
Supporting information
Central government sets the framework for ensuring that Auckland's land for development meets demand, through the National Policy Statement on Urban Development. Read more on the Ministry for the Environment website.
The Aotearoa Homelessness Action Plan 2020-2023 was published in February 2020 to deliver on the Government's vision that homelessness is prevented where possible, or is rare, brief and non-recurring. Read more on the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development website.
Auckland's Mayor set up a taskforce early in 2017 to identify barriers and constraints to building new homes in Auckland at a speed and scale needed to meet the demand caused by population growth. Read the Mayoral Housing Taskforce Report (PDF 2.23MB).